The Cooper Crew
by Mutitoon90
Summary: Shade and Penelope, a duo of runaways from an orphanage, have been robbing from pirates for a few years. But a change encounter with a runaway bride might give them what they have been wanting for most of their lives. Penelope wanted to be seen as the genius that she is, and Shade yearns to find out about her past.
1. Chapter 1

The Cooper Crew

Told by Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter One: Escape and Discovery

The sea was calm as the port of Blood Bath Bay was being guarded from those who would loot the ships that rested there. Most of the crews of the ships, which were pirates, go to the local taverns and become intoxicated within an hour or so, and once they have returned to their respective crafts, they would sleep off the ale, beer and grog. As for the ones who remain sober, they were watching out for any would-be bandits.

On that night, there was a single person that did not belong to any of the crews at the most lawless town in all of the seas. This being would not travel by the normal route for people, which were the paved paths that laid over the port town, and used the riggings of the buildings, which were from destoryed seacrafts, to make the way to the bay.

On the way, there were a few close calls, when the lone person almost was caught by the lantern-carrying guards, and once the guard had passed without noticing the being, the being would make their way to the rooftops. Soon, the being was at the port, looking for someone while trying not to attract any attention of the crews.

"Shade?" A hush voice that belonged to a young girl called out, "Shade, is that you?"

Turning to the source of the voice, the being grinned as they saw a boat-like shadow and gave an answer in a female's voice.

"No one here but us pirates of Blood Bath Bay."

"That's not funny." The meek voice quietly scolded the being known as Shade, who was making her way to the source of the first voice.

"What's wrong with a little verbal jest, Penelope?" Shade asked her friend.

"Really?" The quiet voice of Penelope responded harshly, "If the pirates of this bay doesn't frightened you, then LeFwee should, at least, put some concern into your mind!"

LeFwee, the captain of the Death's Hen and the lord of Skull Keep, had captured Penelope and bounded her in chains until she would agree to be his lover, however Penelope knew her way out of captivity and escaped her prison. After her escape, LeFwee doubled the guards and the reward on her capture. Such attempts failed to deter the girls from trying to escape.

The voice of Shade had the tone of consideration as it released its owner's thoughts.

"Maybe that's a good point. But we are escaping from the guy."

"Just get in the boat, or we'll never escape." Growled Penelope, who wanted to leave as soon as she could.

"All right!" Shade defended herself, "I'm getting in!"

As the being that was Shade entered the jolly boat, the oars were pulled out of the way of the arriving female by Penelope. Once settled in, Shade took the paddles and started rowing. The darkness was a great cover for the escaping females, who wanted to leave Blood Bath Bay as soon as they could.

It took some effort, but Shade and Penelope managed to row out of the bay of pirates. However, the female that was Shade continued to row, knowing that if she stopped rowing that LeFwee's ship, the Death's Hen, would catch up to them and capture them for sure. Keeping this in mind, Shade rowed until morning's first light.

The sunrise allowed sight to any touched by its warm light. Shade, a brown raccoon with hair that went down to her shoulders wearing a torn attire of a white blouse, a black, buckled belt that held a raiper in its sheath and something silver hidden by the leather, gray trousers that were torn to the mid-thigh, striped stockings of yellow and blue that covered the shins and ankles, and black shoes that required to be buckled, saw a slumbering lavender mouse that had long blonde hair, which had a red bandana on it and was tied at the tip by a ribbon of dyed cotton, wearing a pair of glasses, a blue pants that was covered with patches of similar shades, a brown vest and a pair of shoes similar to the raccoon's footware, which was Penelope. Catching a glance of her dear friend with her strangely blue eyes, the she-raccoon shook the mouse, who quickly arose from her sleep and opened her brown eyes.

"Wha- Oh! It's you, Shade!"

"Good to see you up." Shade said with a yawn, "Can you take over the rowing for a while?"

"Okay." The mouse answered with a nod.

Figuring that she was going to rest, the female raccoon moved to another part of the jollyboat and curled into a ball and tried to get some sleep.

That was not the case, however, since Penelope had a device that would make the boat go faster. After Shade was in a ball-like postion, the lavender rodent pulled out from a burlap bag that was placed in the boat by her and removed its contents from the bag, making some noise that disturbed Shade from her sleep.

Shade, wanting to sleep, allowed her friend to continue her work. For as long as she could remember, Shade always saw Penelope as a very intelligent girl and determined to a fault. However, not everyone saw Penelope's intelligent as a good thing; frankly, everyone else, who knew both girls, tried to discourage the young mouse from inventing and building things. Then, with her freedom regained from LeFwee, Penelope was free to build things once more.

As Penelope built her lastest device, Shade recalled the days of her childhood, which were not horrible, and yet not so great. Shade had lost her family at the young age of five, and she was sent to the local orphanage, which was ran by a self-rightous, over-confident and over-bearing woman that treated the female children as slaves. Causing much of the pain in the orphanage and under the impression that a woman's place was in the house, the woman made all of the girls do all of the housework, while the boys were allowed to goof around and be lazy, when they were not doing the 'manly' work. Shade hated living in such a horrible place, but the only good thing that came from it was meeting and befriending Penelope, who lost her dear family at the tender age of ten years. That very woman that ran the orphanage made Penelope's life there miserible, allowing the boys to tease and harm her, causing Shade to fight the boys. Making sure that Shade would learn a lesson, the 'perfect woman' would starve the young raccoon. The head of the orphanage did teach a lesson to Shade, and that was how to be a survivor.

Three years following their first meeting, Shade and Penelope decided to run away, guessing that the old woman wanted them to act like 'proper women' and arranged marriages for the both of them, while posing as their mother. It took some time, but the two good friends managed to make their escape. Since then, the duo had been stealing from pirates to support their lives at sea.

"I'm finished!" The mouse shouted in joy upon completing her project, waking Shade from a light sleep.

The raccoon sat up and saw the end result of the mouse's work, asking, "What is it?"

"It's a pulley-paddle system." Penelope answered before she gave an explaination about how it worked.

Shade listened to every word, and when the mouse was done, the raccoon repeated everything she believed that she heard.

"So, let me get this straight: that device is put on the back of the boat, and the fans are placed in the water, so when you paddle the winch, the fans would push the boat through the water, allowing us to move quickly?"

"That's a good summary of my pulley-paddle system." Penelope nodded in comfirmation.

"All right." Shade smiled at her ally, "Are you going to try it out?"

"Of course, Shade. Trying and testing things to see if it's functioning or not is a part of experimenting new ideas."

"Do you need me for this venture?"

"Not now, Shade; you just get some more sleep."

"Thanks," yawned the raccoon, "I needed to hear that."

As the mouse started to use her invention to move the boat, Shade went back to her curled form and went to sleep. The last thoughts in the brown mammal's mind was how she and Penelope got themselves into the situation with LeFwee.

It started when both girls were working at the most popular tavern in Blood Bath Bay, the Maroon Lagoon, as barmaids. Shade often heard stories from a co-founder of Blood Bath Bay, Black Spot Pete. When he was drunk, the old, green parrot would brag about how he and his shipmate, Cantankerous Tim, stole a boatload of gold and treasured body gear from a man that was called Reme Lousteau and buried in Dagger Isle, an island that was not very far to reach by any boat. Then, the old pirate would lament about how the map to find the treasure was stolen by LeFwee.

Shade and Penelope decided to search for a way into Skull Keep, LeFwee's stronghold, and they found it in the form of floating boxes, which led to the backdoor, and a few ramps that went to top of the stronghold, which was also where the courtyard resided. That was when the female raccoon and the lavender mouse first saw LeFwee, a parrot of red with a gray-black beak and a heart darker in shade. After finding the self-proclaimed 'Smartest Man on the Seven Seas,' who executed one of his men that possesed a different opinion, the two friends waited until the dark-hearted pirate captain went inside to make their move. Shade used her slingshot to hit one the guards, who accused another for popping him in the back of the head, and soon a brawl ensured, allowing Shade and Penelope to search for the map.

In the first room they searched, they found a chest completely covered in traps: saw blades, swords, spears and a even miniature cannon. Both friends were impressed, but the mouse still saw the simplicity in the chest's protection. Concerned about being caught by LeFwee's men, Shade looked out for any trouble, while Penelope managed to deactive the traps, which took the mouse a few minutes. That time passed, the chocolate and licorice colored raccoon heard LeFwee ending the fight by killing the one that started the accusations to his men. To make things worse, there was one trap that the friends overlooked: a dust that blinded people, and Penelope was hit with a full blast and made an exclaim of surprise.

Shade, worried about her friend's possiblily of being blind for the rest of her life, heard LeFwee cursing and yelling at his guards for letting some trasspassers enter the fort. The raccoon quickly grabbed a saber from the booby-trapped chest and use it to bar the door that connected the courtyard to the room. After that action, Shade grabbed the blinded rodent and jumped out of the window. As the girls ran off into the night, both of them heard the deadly pirate's words of revenge. Since then, LeFwee had setted up an reward for the capture of the 'men' that stole the treasure map.

Once Shade led her friend to safety and Penelope recoved from being blinded by the dust, both friends chose to wait until things cooled down a bit before they would make their move to Dagger Isle. Soon, the girls returned to their persona of barmaids and stayed that way from a while. Soon, the reward and the thieves were forgotten by most of the residents of the Bay.

One day, Penelope was waiting for Shade outside of the Maroon Lagoon, due to an agurement became violent, when LeFwee confornted the poor mouse. Catching the girl off-guard, the blood-feathered bird tricked her into confessing to her part in breaking into the Skull Keep and taking the Dagger Isle map. As luck would have it, Shade saw and heard the whole thing and quickly dislodged a hanging boat, which landed on the intelligent pirate, prevent any harm to her friend and allowing Penelope to escape.

After the escape from LeFwee's fury, the girls knew that the blood and ebony pirate would most likely raise the reward to ensure the friends' capture. To counter this, Shade devised a plan to keep the pirates from catching the both of them. It was simple: Penelope would stay out of sight in town, while Shade would seek out the treasure, but she was not going to uncover it. Once she learned of the exact whereabouts of the treasure, the raccoon was to return to Blood Bath Bay and pick Penelope up and escape from the port town with the intentions of hiding out until things calm down once again, so they could retreive the buried treasure.

Over the course of two weeks, everything went according to the plan, until Shade returned to Blood Bath Bay. However, when she arrived at the hideout that she and Penelope, the raccoon was met with an ambush. Pirates of all sizes and shapes attacked her with full force, but Shade was a swordplayer herself; her weapons were a rapier and a silver cane that had a hook that was shaped of a 'C,' and the female raccoon managed to fend off the sea dogs.

Once she finally evaded the guards, thoughts of concern entered the raccoon's mind; she did not know if Penelope was captured or killed. Her answer would come to her sooner than she thought.

A week after her return to the bay, Shade wondering around on the rooftops, when she heard a familiar voice. Recognizing it was Penelope's voice, the raccoon looked around for the mouse and found her in disguise as a cabin boy. Once the friends were reunited, Penelope explained what had happened in the two weeks Shade was gone.

The mouse said that LeFwee had sent a spy to follow them, because LeFwee come at the girls' hideout and captured the mouse and made her his prisoner. In the days that followed Penelope's capture, LeFwee had offered her freedom, if Penelope would agree to love him. The mouse bravely said no, stating that she would rather be hanged at the gallows. The rebuff outraged the pirate, and he ordered his men to bind her in chains and to make sure that she stayed in the prison. During that time, Penelope managed to figure out how to free herself from the chains and made a strong effort to hide her knowledge from LeFwee, until she finally freed herself and escaped from Skull Keep. By the time the friends returned to each other's company, the young she-mouse had been free for a night and a day.

The friends knew that they needed to leaved and soon. Shade suggested that they leave the port town the following night, which was accompanied by a wink. Penelope saw the wink and knew that her friend was saying that in case of a spy.

In the following night, the she-raccoon's guess was correct as the friends saw the collection of pirates searching for them. Patrols covered the ground of Blood Bath Bay, and every roof had a minimum of one pirate each. Clashing with the barbarian-like brutes was a very unwise, and the girls knew it very well, so they decided to wait until things were more calm. In the following week, the girls made their escape, which led to where they were.

Shade, who had slept for a couple of hours, woke up and saw Penelope, who had fallen sleep after paddling for some time. Allowing a smile, the she-raccoon breathed in deeply, enjoying the salty air of the sea, which was more like the sweet oxygen of freedom to her. Feeling renewed in spirit, Shade sat on a bench, and reached underneath it, pulling out a small burlap bag. She opened it and grabbed a flute; it was normal for the raccoon to play her instrument when she was alone and very sure at no one would listen to her play. She was placing the fipple into her mouth, planning to make some music...

"Hello?!"

The call make Shade growl a little, because she truly wanted to play the flute, but she quickly swallowed her anger and pride as she stuck the flute into her belt and looked at the direction of the call. In the distance, the raccoon saw a huge figure in a jollyboat. Seeing this, Shade went to her belt and pulled out a spyglass to gain a closer look at far-off rowboat.

In the other craft, a huge figure was black and white and wore a foreign attire. At first glance, Shade thought the being to be a male, but once she had a better look, the raccoon laughed at herself for mistaking the large female for a man. The next thing Shade made a third look and saw the boat belonged to a rich person, telling Shade that the woman was in trouble.

Putting down her spyglass, the raccoon turned to her napping friend and shook her, waking the mouse.

"What?" Moaned the young mouse, "Shade, what's the emergency?"

Giving Penelope her telescope, the raccoon pointed at the other boat and said, "Look over there!"

The blonde took the spyglass and saw the large, black and white being and the gold-decorated jolly boat. Seeing this, the mouse looked at Shade and asked, "What's a person like that doing out here?"

The question, of course, was silly in Shade's mind, since she and the mouse were out here by themselves, but she replied, "Could be lost or trying to get away from an unwanted suitor."

"Or they trying to catch us for LeFwee." Penelope guessed, still paranoid about being recaptured by the black-hearted fiend.

"Don't think so." The raccoon disagreed, "A foreigner in the middle of the sea? Something tells me that this one's lacking the intention to harm us."

The rodent glared at her friend, but she realizied that Shade was wanting to help the stranger and almost nothing would deter the brown and black raccoon from trying to help. With a defeating sigh, Penelope said, "Let's go, Shade."

Grinning victoriously, the she-raccoon grabbed the oars and rowed all of the way to the gold-covered rowboat. Once there, she and her friend saw the figure crying bitterly.

"Ahoy, there!" Shade announced to the stranger, who looked up at the raccoon in shock with red, tear-filled eyes.

Shade and Penelope saw a female panda with blue-black hair that was slipping out of her comb and hairpins. The foreigner wore a long-sleeved mandarin gown, which looked more like a robe. She was truly someone who needed help.

"Oh, thank you!" The panda bowed to the duo, "I was beyond hoping that you would have heard me! You are noble-hearted men indeed."

Hearing this, Shade and Penelope looked at their clothes and remembered that they were not dressed in the normal clothes for women. In that realiziation, the two friends laughed, confusing the panda that did not know what was so humorous. The duo, seeing the confusion in the panda's eyes, revealed their true gender to her.

"Oh!" The bear exclaimed as she blushed, "I apologize; I meant no disrespect to you, but your clothes..."

"Our clothes are doing their job: hiding the fact we're women." The raccoon smiled at the black and white creature. Then, she remembered something.

"Before we go on, introductions are needed here. I'm Sandra, but I'm called Shade. This is my friend and compaion, Peneplope."

"My," the female bear exclaimed slightly surprised, "such imformal introductions!"

The opinion caused Shade to chuckle a bit before she responed.

"On the sea, which is a cruel thing, being formal doesn't keep you alive for long. Now, your name?"

"Oh, I am Jing King, the daughter of the Panda King." The larger of the females bowed again.

"Nice to meet you." The raccoon smiled kindly, calming the she-panda a little, "Now, why is a girl like yourself doing out here all alone?"

At first, the stranger was hesitant, but she needed to speak, so she answered.

"I am from the land of China, where my family lived happily for many years. Then, one day, a cruel man known as General Tsao came into my home and captured me. Soon, I learned of his intentions for me: he wished for me to be bride for the sake of his own bloodline. Fortune smiled on me, because my father with the assistance of a renowned pirate crew recused me from Tsao and the forced marriage. After the events, my father sent me to the home of my aunt and departed from his homeland, promising that he would return once he paid his debt.

"Wow..." Penelope processed the information as she continued to listen to Jing King's story.

"Some time after Father's leave, Tsao found me and my aunt. As he did before, he took me to his palace, but he did not wed me." At this point of the tell, Shade and Penelope were curious about the gerenal's decision of prolonging the wedding, but the answer came.

"Tsao planned on marrying me as soon as he could prevent any other means of escape from his palace. However, a brave fiserman managed to help me escaped and sent me to a port town, allowing me to seek out my father. Sadly, Tsao managed to follow me and kidnapped me once again, keeping me captive in a cabin. Then, I managed to escaped once more by sneaking to one of the lifeboats and quietly lowering myself to the waters and rowing in the opposite direction."

"That's an amazing story, Jing King." The raccoon said, but the mouse was not impressed, believing it to be a tall tale.

"I do not believe that so," the frightened foreginer countered, and then she added, "but I am in need of some assistance. Will you please help me?"

Shade and Penelope looked at each other; The raccoon's face said, 'Let's help her,' however the mouse's expression spoke in volumes that they should not trust Jing King, which Penelope expressed verbally.

"Maybe you've forgotten the last time we've helped someone 'in need,' Shade. That-that-that you-know-what sold us out for her own amusement!"

"I recall that event," Shade smiled at her good friend, "and as I remember, it was you, who wanted to help that person out. Remember?"

The reminder made Penelope blushed in embarassment; Shade was being accurate about the information of the situation the two companions recall.

"Can we just get going?" The mouse grunted, trying to conceal her embarassment.

Shade smiled, knowing that Penelope meant well, but the lavender and blonde mouse had a somewhat bad judgement of characte. The raccoon, then, remembered a question to ask Jing King: "What do you remember of the pirates that your father's sailing with?"

"Not very much; Father would not allow me to see any of them." A dishearten Jing King announced. Then, she quickly remembered something and said, "I do recall seeing one of the pirates!"

"What did the guy look like?" The raccoon was curious about the pirate, knowing it would help her and Penelope's effort to find the runaway panda's father.

"Well, I failed to see his face, but I saw something that he had."

"That's helpful..." Penelope groaned in annoyance, earning a disapproving nudge from Shade, who told Jing King to continue.

"Yes, the object that I saw was golden, and the shape reminded me of the crescent moon."

"A golden crescent moon?" The two friend inqurred out loud and looked at each other, hoping for an answer from one another.

"Do you two know of such a thing?" The panda asked the friends, who were still lacking a reply.

Shade released a hard sigh and placed her hand on her belt. Once she did that, the raccoon felt the letter-shaped hook that rested in belt. Making a guess, Shade pulled out the cane and asked Jing King a question: "Is this the shape you saw?"

Seeing the cane, the Chinese girl's face froze from shock for a few moments before she reacted verbally.

"Yes, this is the shape I saw that day! How did you come to find it?"

The excitement in Jing King's voice was evident to both females, who lingered for a moment before they answered the question.

"Don't really know myself." Shade said with a shrug of her sholders, and Penelope added, "Been with her for almost a long as she could remember."

"But how is this possible?" Jing King asked the females, who only moved their shoulders in their own confusion.

Then, Shade quickly changed the subject, saying, "Jing King, you still have a general after you. It's best that we start getting you farther from him."

"If there is one..." Penelope muttered again, causing the raccoon to glare at her before turning to the panda.

"Do you have any rope with you?"

"Yes," the girl in the gold boat answered, "I obtained it when it snapped, dropping me into the water. Why do you need it?"

Shade smiled sweetly as she spoke her response to the question.

"It's very simple: Penelope has a bit of a trust issue, but I know you're just a girl in trouble, so I'm compromising by tying the boats together."

"That does make sense." The panda mused at the blue-eyed raccoon's logic, "You shall have it."

"Thanks." The she-raccoon nodded to Jing King as she received the rope from Jing King.

With the rope in her hand, Shade noticed that the rope was very weak, not appropriate or very useful in the ship, and she voiced it to her companions.

"Why would he use such a weak thing on his ship?" The three-time runaway bride asked in her own confusion, "It is not like him to buy such cheap materials."

"Cheap materials?" Penelope mused at the statement for a moment, and then she understood Tsao's thinking with the rope.

"A trap!"

"A trap!?" Jing King gasped at the assumation.

"That's sense to me." Shade spoke out. Then, she added as her attention was aimed at the she-panda, "Tsao must've believed that you would escape during the wedding."

"That's right." The lavender mouse confirmed with a nod.

"If that's the case," the raccoon announced, "we better get going!"

"Yeah!" The mouse agreed firmly, "Good chance that this Tsao guy's noticed that you've escape by now."

"But the rope-" Jing King tried to point out to the girls, but Shade said, "We have strong rope with us; we're smart enough to hide it so that no one would sabotage or take it."

The panda sighed in relief as Shade removed the rope from its hiding place and said, "Thank you."

Making sure that the jump was successful, the raccoon hopped into Jing King's jolly boat. Quickly, Shade put the rope through the rings on the stern transoms, which were on the sides of the boat, and she tied the ends of the rope together. However, a complication arose: the rope was too short to reach Shade and Penelope's transoms.

Penelope saw this and spoke, "Well, that's a surprise..."

Shade said nothing for a moment, looking at the short rope. The moment was followed by a smile and a statement.

"Yes, and there's another one's coming."

The panda and the mouse had confusion on their faces, as Shade continued to speak.

"It's not long enough to tied them to the transoms, but it still can reach our jolly boat."

"How?" Penelope asked the raccoon, who gave a confident smile.


	2. Chapter 2

The Cooper Crew

Told by Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter Two: The Secret to be Found

"I wasn't expecting this." Penelope said to Shade, who was rowing the boat that was pulling Jing King's dinghy by the pully-paddle system.

It had been, at least, an hour since Shade and Penelope met Jing King and agreed to help her escape her cruel and relentless suitor, General Tsao. While Shade rowed the boat, Penelope, who shallowed her pride and talked to Jing King, trusting that the raccoon's judgement better than her own.

"Amazing!" The child of China exclaimed, "I would have never thought of leaving that place if I was in your postition; I would have been too afraid."

"Yeah, I guess so..." The blonde female nodded in slight modesty; normally, people would not have approved of such actions for them.

"Hey, Penelope!" Shade called out as she stopped rowing the jolly boats, "How long until we reach our destination?"

"Not too long now, Shade." The mouse replied.

The answer activated the raccoon's curiousity, causing her to turn around to the opposite direction of her fellow runaways. Shade said as she said the name of what was in front of her and her destination...

"The Misty Depths... We're here."

The girls saw a wall of mist; a cloud of mist is one of the few places of the sea that any pirate with enough sense their mind to avoid, due to sharp rocks and other things hidden in the mist. It is also a good place to hide from any navy ships that would chase after them.

However, the Misty Depths is the only place that the pirates would not dare to enter; if the pirates were trapped between the navy and the depths, they would surrender to the navy, knowing that they had gained a few more days longer to remain in that world. Shade and Penelope knew very well of the reason that the sea dogs refuse to enter the Misty Depths.

"The home of the Crusher." Proclaimed the rodent, which received the response of Jing King, who was unfamiliar of the sea that she was at with her new allies.

"Excuse me, but I know nothing of this 'Crusher.'

The mouse looked at Shade, who answered very casually.

"It's simple: the Crusher is a sea monster that lives in the Misty Depths. No pirate, unless he was an arrogant fool, would dare enter there."

Jing King was a little startled about the sea creature that every pirate feared, and the fear exposed itself in her voice as she asked the two females, "If no one would dare to traspass the dethps, why are you so willing to tread those waters?"

Shade smiled, like a mother to her child, and answered just as sweetly.

"Granted: you're right about the reasoning behind in staying away from the Misty Dethps, however, Penelope and myself have some 'research' before making the trip."

"Research?" Inqurred the larger of the females, "What form of research?

"Research by ear." Penelope answered in a deadpan tone.

"Research by ear?" Jing King repeated in the confusion, but she realized what the lavender female meant and voiced it, saying, "I understand now! You listen to others!"

"That's right, Jing King." Shade nodded as she confirmed the answer, "Here's what we've learn from those who've claimed to have survived by escaping the Crusher's fury: one thing is the ships that would enter these misty waters were normally larger than the dinghies we're in right now, and second thing is that the only time the Crusher would ever attack a jolly boat is when it's trying to sink the larger ship."

Then, the sound of a horn pierced through the air, telling all that hear it. The two friends, who lived the life of a sea drifter, were unfamiliar to the custom, but the child from China turned around and gasped a single word: "Tsao..."

Shade, upon hearing the name of the self-proclaimed bridegroom of Jing King, pulled out her spyglass and looked into it, seeing the far-off object. The raccoon saw the ship that had a sail that had a foreign symbol on it with wooden poles within the sail.

"I don't know about this ship, but Jing King might." The raccoon spoke as she gave the handheld telescope to Jing King.

The panda took the spyglass and saw what Shade had observed; old horrors became new once again to Jing King, whose eyes filled with fear and tears as she dropped the spyglass that landed in the boat.

"I have been discovered again!"

"Maybe so," Shade spoke again to the daughter of the Panda King, "but you're not caught yet!" Then, the raccoon swiftly turned to the mouse and barked an order at her.

"Penelope, full speed ahead!"

"Aye, aye, Shade!" The smaller female saluted her friend before going to the pulley-paddle system and started turning the winch as fast as she could in an attempt from the on-coming ship.

The two dinghies were speeding off, but the she-raccoon knew that Penelope's invention was not going to be enough to fully escape General Tsao, causing her to take the oars and started rowing again. Jing King saw this and wanted to help, and she did by grabbing the paddles that were in her jolly boat and started rowing herself. With the combination of the three females, the dinghies were going faster and entered the Misty Depths within minutes.

Once in the fog-covered waters, the girls slowed their pace, yet they refused to stop, knowing that the Crusher was going to reveal itself soon. Treading through the home of a creature, like the Crusher, was an unwise course of action, in normal circumstances, and it stirred fear into their hearts. More fear entered their minds, when they saw the wrecked ships that rested on the rocks and beaches that were hidden in the fog.

"Come on, girls," Shade announced, trying to calm herself and her friends, "things seem to be bad now, but if we don't hurry our pace, Tsao is sure gonna catch us."

The speech did its job: inspiring the other females into continuing the trek through the Misty Depths. As the horn was sound once again, the girls hastened to escape the Crusher, until they reached land, nearly ramming Jing King's dinghy into Shade and Penelope's jolly boat.

"Whoa!" The trio exclaimed as each of them reacted to the clashing of the boats.

Shade, Penelope, and Jing King fell backwards upon impact. Shade bumped the back of her head, while an oar flew out of her hand and landed on the beach's sands. Penelope fell onto her side, covering her eyes from the flying wood from the boats hitting each other. Jing King's hair fell loose as the panda fell back herself, making her the first to speak out.

"Is everyone all right?"

"Well," spoke the raccoon in the dinghy in front of the panda's, "all I have is a bump, but that's all."

The mouse pushed herself up and announced, "I'm a little bruised, but that's better than being dead."

"And I am not harmed myself." The Panda King's daughter announced, "Then, we are safe?"

"We're all right," Shade spoke out, "but 'safe' isn't the word I would use right now."

"Better stay here." Penelope said to the others, "Things are about to be interesting."

"Soon enough, me hearties." The raccoon spoke in the pirate's speech in her own accent, "Soon enough..."

As the girls hid themselves and looked on at the hidden waters, the ship of General Tsao cut through the mists, bringing a sense of hopelessness to Jing King. The girls ran off to the horn for the third time, but this time, the bellow was followed by another horn blast.

"What in Heaven's name was that?!" Penelope exclaimed from her hiding place, which was a broken brig of an over-turned ship of the French navy.

"I don't really know," Shade replied as she appeared from the same hiding place, "but I'm about to find out."

Pulling out the silver and brown cane, the she-raccoon climbed up the battleship by using parts of it to reach the crow's nest. Once that was accomplished, Shade pulled out her spyglass and peered into it.

Mostly fog and mist entered her sights as the raccoon saw a ship coming towards the Chinese craft. Soon, she was looking at a silver serpent's head, telling her that ship is under the command of one of the most clever of pirates in the world.

"Impossible..." The raccoon gasped out before she climbed down to Penelope and Jing King.

"You're not going to believe what crew just came over the horizon!" Shade announced to her companions, who was confused by Shade's strange change in behavior. Then, the brown and black mammal said, "Here's a clue: I saw the Silver Serpent!"

Jing King failed to answer due to her lack of knowledge. Penelope, however, gasped upon hearing the name of the ship.

"The Cooper Crew's here!? Why!?"

"Don't know." Shade answered, "I do know that it has something to do with Tsao's battleship."

"But why?" Jing King asked, oblivious of the situation at that time.

The raccoon mused on the question for a moment before she gave her reply.

"Hmm, my guess: to rob it. Although, the Cooper Crew probably all ready did. Either way, things are definitely gonna fly around here, once the Crusher shows up."

"Wait a minute!" Penelope halted the raccoon's words, "Maybe the Cooper Crew did rob Tsao of his ship, why would they sail it all the way to the home of the Crusher?"

"It must involve one of the many theories of how the Cooper Crew is known as one of the most powerful groups of pirates ever to said any sea: a mystic, or something that, that can control the Crusher."

"Hmm, my guess: to rob it. Although, the Cooper Crew probably all ready did. Either way, things are definitely gonna fly around here, once the Crusher shows up."

"Wait a minute!" Penelope halted the raccoon's words, "Maybe the Cooper Crew did rob Tsao of his ship, why would they sail it all the way to the home of the Crusher?"

"It must involve one of the many theories of how the Cooper Crew is known as one of the most powerful groups of pirates ever to said any sea: a mystic, or something that, that can control the Crusher."

"Did you hit your head too hard?" The mouse was aback at the raccoon's words.

"No, I listened those pirates that talked about the Cooper Crew." Shade announced with a grin.

"Alright," the lavender rodent tried to prove her friend wrong again, "if you're right about the mystic, how is using the Crusher to sink the ships going to help them get more gold into their pockets?"

"Simple: the Crusher could get most of the bigger cargo, but the diver could get the rest."

"The diver?"

"Yeah; he could dive into very deep dethps and place a bomb onto a hull of a ship without being noticed, usually when a sea battle's going on. Besides, he might be related to Reme Lousteau."

"Great!" Penelope groaned out loud, exposing her annoyance, "There goes our payday."

"Maybe not." Shade shook her head, "However, first things first: let's get out of the battlefield before the fight gets started."

"Good point." The mouse finally agreed to the raccoon's words.

"Jing King," Shade turned to the young panda, "let's go."

"Understood." The Chinese native nodded in response before following the two girls to the next hiding place in the Misty Depths.

As the trio hopped from ship to ship, Shade was always the first to transport herself, seeking for ways that her friends to traverse themselves to the other ship safely. By the time they had reached the third ship, all were very tired from the journey, but Shade was the most exhausted of the group.

"How long must we go before we can sleep?" Jing King said, nearly out of breath from the trip and the scares that she had when she watched the raccoon and her stunts with the cane with the silver hook.

"Now's good enough, Jing King." Shade yawned out, showing that she was ready to sleep herself.

"Yeah..." The mouse managed to say before laying down and falling asleep in a matter of seconds.

"Man!" The raccoon tried to exclaimed, but she could only yawn, "Looks like I'm on guard duty... again."

Shade turned to the Chinese girl, but she was also fast asleep.

"Looks like it's just me, myself and I." The she-raccoon joked to herself.

"Man, I wonder how the Crusher destorys a ship?" Shade said as she pulled out her spyglass and looked through it. She saw the tentacles of white, blue and light purple smashing things, grabbing the deck and tearing chuncks of the ship. However one thing puzzled her: "Where's the men?"

With the exception of the Crusher that she could see, Shade could not find any sign of life on the ship's deck: no sailors, no nobleman, no cabin boys, no one!

"That's very strange..." Mused the brown raccoon, who remove the small telescope from her line of sight, "If no one's on broad, then how did the ship managed to get here?"

Returning the spyglass to her eye, she watched the Crusher pull and drag the ship down into the briny and misty depths of its territory. Shade placed the spyglass to her belt and bowed her head, believing that someone might have been in the doomed vessel of the sea. As she fell silent for a moment, a loud splash roared through the air, causing the she-raccoon to lift her head and pull out her spyglass again.

Reaching for the bag that she managed to received from the jolly boat and pulled out her favorite and most dear thing in the world: her flute. Yet again, Shade could not play it, because another interruption occured; this time, it sounded like something being broken and crushed. Knowing that it was the Crusher, Shade placed the flute into her belt and climbed the ship's body and reached the highest point of the ship.

"What was that?!" The brown and black female exclaimed in the sudden shock from the sound as she peered through the telescope.

A creature of dark purple sat on top of the Crusher's white, huge, trianglular head waved at the Silver Serpent, confirming the belief that the Cooper Crew was controlling the Crusher of the Misty Depths. In addition, the diver theory would be proven as well as a head rose from the sea only a few yards from the creature.

"Oh, I can't wait to tell Penelope about this!" Shade giggled in delight as she returned the spyglass to her belt and turned around to return to the friend and Jing King.

Upon nearing to the area where she last saw her allies, Shade stopped herself as she witnessed her companions being rudely awakened, grabbed and bonded, offically captured by a small band of pirates. She knew that attacking the pirates was not a wise idea for many reasons: the possiblilty of more pirates nearby, traps and her friends being prisoners. Because of this reasoning of the raccoon, Shade decided to follow close behind the captors of her allies; a feat that is very diffcult for most. However, Shade was a gifted person.

"Come on!" The white and cream colored dingo leader of the small group shouted to the huge bull dogs, "We can't have anyone 'round here to spill any secrets that might casue trouble for us!"

"Aye, aye!" The group barked up before yanking the rope that confided Penelope and Jing King from escaping them.

As the females were being 'escorted' from the ship and onto the sand, Penelope kept looking back, looking for something. One of the pirates noticed this and pushed the mouse, telling her to continue walking. The lavender mouse obeyed, but she still looked back, hoping to see something in the sand.

"I said, 'Keep moving!'" The dog that yelled at Penelope before barked again, "If you don't stop draggin' yer feet, I'll use you as an anchor! Got it?!"

The blonde haired girl nodded nervously as she turned her head towards the front, praying that her friend would rescue her and Jing King.

Making their way to a rock's surface, the dingo turned to his men and barked out, "Blindfold them!"

Two of the sea dogs quickly pulled out a bandana and wrapped them around the girls' heads, preventing the females from seeing everything that happened next.

The dingo went to a rock and open it: a wooden lever was hidden behind a stone-like compartment! The leader of the pack pulled the lever down, and a larger slab of stone moved, revealing a secret passage into the formation of nature. Soon, all the pirates and their prisoners went inside the doorway before the rock-door returned to its resting place. As the pirates pulled the girls farther down the hidden path, a set of footprints made of damp sand followed them, but none of the canines noticed this as their sights were towards the light at the end of the passageway.

Soon, the rouges of the sea reached the end of the tunnel's path, and the leader commanded the bull dogs to remove the bandanas from the girls. The dogs obeyed again, causing the girls to winced in slight pain from the light entering their brown eyes so suddenly.

"Ow!" The mouse turned her head from the bright light, when a thought entered her mind: light inside a rock could mean one light! Penelope looked back at the light and looked below it. What she saw was a whole town and port!

"Amazing place, it is!" One of the dogs announced to the girls, who were in pure awe, "Too bad, yer going in the holding cell; Captain doesn't like traspassers 'round here."

"What!?" Penelope managed to said before the pirates yanked the rope that held her close to the captors, pulling her to town below.

As the young women were being led into and throughout the town, Penelope and Jing King could not help themselves from being in awe of the town and the life that it held: the children playing on the streets made of pebbles and bits of stone, the men and women working together on and in the homes and the happiness that they had. Jing King was in awe of such a happy-filled place, but Penelope could not help herself from sheding a tear, due to her hard, miseriable life at the orphanage and the difficult lifestyle on the sea with Shade.

"Move it!" The dingo barked as he yanked the rope, sending them to the ground.

Then, a fruit flew in the air and landed right on top of the leader's head, showing how rotten it was by how it imploded upon hitting the dingo, who was not pleased by the decaying vegetation dripping from the top of his head and into his shoulders and white, sleeveless shirt.

Seeing their captor humilated in such a manner, Penelope and Jing King managed to smile through their gags, but they were not the only ones to find the sight amusing; several people giggled, laughed, and snickered at the dingo, who barked at his men.

"Who did that!?"

As expected to anyone with some sense about these matters: no answer that truly answered the huge canine's question.

Following the loud demand, another rotting piece of fruit landed on the back of the dingo's head and neck. The reaction from the slime streaking down his back was a disgust-filled shudder, which caused the others to laugh even harder.

"Come on!" The beady-eyed bully whipped around, sending slime soaring in the air, "I'll take ya on!"

Then, a barrel fell over, causing the dingo to pull out his pistol and fired it. However, the result was not what he expected; the flintlock pistol backfired, causing his face to be covered with gunpowder soot. This led to even more laughter at the dingo's expense.

"Now, you've done it!" The canine growled out loud to the air, "No one makes a fool outta me and get away with it!" With a huff of haughtiness and a puff of pompousness, the leader of the small pack left with his men following not too far behind, leaving the girls in the dust.

Thankfully, some of the people that saw the dingo's humiliation and helped the girls to their feet and untied them.

"Man!" Penelope said as she took a deep breath of relief as the gag's hold on her mouth was removed, "Thanks for freeing us."

"Non," a black and white cat with a French accent replied, "it is us who should thank you and your invisible friend."

Penelope stepped back and denied the statement all together.

"No way, that's impossible!"

"Demoiselle," the lady cat responded to the denial with a growl in her voice, "around here, we do not like les menteurs with their filthy lies. We are not les imbéciles, believing the words of everyone that enters this place."

Penelope, not accustomed to being accused of lying, continued to say that she need nothing of a 'invisible ally,' only to experience more accusations from the French cat, who was gaining more allies in the forms of her neighbors.

"Man," Shade's voice rang out to the gathering crowd, "if this a way to talk to people, this town's not as good as I first thought!"

The crowd looked around and failed to see anyone, and Jing King was withdrawing from the sudden announcement of the unseeable Shade. Penelope looked to an nearby torch and saw Shade's shadow, truly knowing of the she-raccoon's secret: Shade can become invisible, which had proven its useful everytime.

"Show yourself, Demoiselle!" begged the feline looking around for Shade, "We want to thank you for teaching that creature a lesson."

The shadow of her friend retreated from the flame, causing Penelope to wonder where Shade was hiding. Following that, the voice spoke again.

"As much as I want to, but there's one problem: the dingo's looking over here with his underlings."

"What?!" A gruff voice roared out, causing the group of citizens to turn towards the small band of canines.

"I thought you'd be long gone by now." A British-sounding vole popped up from behind the French feline.

"Quiet, Wagga!" The dingo shouted; his voice toned with fury. Then his attentions were turned to Penelope, barking at her with this statement: "Where's da yeller-bellied tramp of a shela?!"

Penelope, knowing of Shade's fury, moved away from the dingo, who was confused by the lavender mouse's actions.

"'Ey, why'd ya back off, like that?"

"You're opening Pandora's box, and I'm not sticking around to see what happens next." The she-mouse answered before grabbing Jing King and running away.

The dingo huffed as he mocked Shade, who was still hidden from the view of all, saying, "That shela's a weakling, if she's hidden in plain sight."

"Dying to find out?" Shade's voice echoed from behind the dingo, who grabbed a small sack from his belt and throw it at the hidden creature. However, a bull dog was hit with the horrid substance that was hidden in the pouch.

"Show yerself, so I can kill ya!" Howled the furious dingo.

"Kill me?" The she-raccoon's voice gasped mockingly before adding, "The only killing done here would be me killing time."

The dingo only response was, "Ya might be able hide yerself in plain sight, but ya forgot one thing: yer friends can't!"

Then, the outraged canine pulled out a flintlock pistol, aimed it at the girls, and pulled the trigger. Smoke covered the sight of everyone that was there.

"Je suis aveugle!" Screeched the feline that confornted the mouse earlier.

"What happened?" Jing King's voice rose from the gunsmoke.

"I don't know; it's too smokey here!" Penelope exclaimed as she tried to fan some of the discharged powder from her mouth and nose.

"What's going on here!?" A women's voice rang out to all people at the smoke-covered area.

Then, a strong gust blew at the airborne powder, which flew at the command of the artifical wind, revealing many things: the safe females, the confused citizens, the bewildered bull dogs and most important, the knocked out dingo.

"It never fails!" The new, Spanish-sounding voice spoke again, "As the captain would say, 'He huffs and puffs himself up with his own fury, and he ends up blowing himself up.'"

"That's a good way to describe it." Shade laughed out, liking quote greatly.

"Good to hear that, señorita," a gloved hand grabbed an invisible shoulder, revealing Shade, "I'm sure the captain would very much to talk to you."

The raccoon turned to the direction of the hand and saw a red fox with blue, wavy hair, bright yellow-brown eyes, and an outfit composed of an orange shirt, brown pants, black boots, yellow gloves and a huge pistol-like weapon at her side. Shade knew she was caught and visible and admitted surrender by raising her hands, which was followed by a heavy sigh of defeat.

"Put your hands down, kid," the vixen shooked her head and laughed at the same time, "I'm not going to arrest you, not after what you did."

Lower her hands, Shade was confused by the fox's words, asking, "Why are you-"

"Helping you?" The rred fox finished before answering, "Razor's been giving everyone some form of trouble since that dreadful day he was allowed to live here. I've been arresting him and sending him to the holding cell, but it does little good."

"Sending him to the holding cell?" Penelope intervended into the conversation, "That doesn't work."

"I know," the fox's head drooped in shame, "but the captain refused to do anything about him everytime I've reported that dumb dingo!"

"Something must be up," the she-mouse mused at the thought, "with these frequent complaints about Razor, he would figure that something's a little amiss here."

"Agreed." The vixen announced to the girls, who looked at each other in confusion, and the fox noticed this.

"What's wrong?"

Shade and Penelope looked at each other again, not knowing what exactly to said to the vermillion woman, who had been very kind to them. Managing to figure out how to reply to fox's question, Shade said, "A couple of things, but one of them is this: we don't know your name or why you're so willing to help us."

"Oh, yeah." The vixen realized the same thing. Then, she suggested, "I'll explain myself once I've tucked Razor into the holding cell again."


	3. Chapter 3

The Cooper Crew

Told by Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter Three: Another Secret to Uncover

Night has fallen over the sea, but it was as bright as noon in the underground town that Shade, Penelope and Jing King had recently discovered, when Razor and his bull dog lackeys found them. Luckfully, the girls had found many allies, who had no love for the dingo, and they even made one new friend at the end of the day.

At this point, Razor was incarcerated, the hidden village was quiet, and the three girls, who was only trying to escape unwanted suitors, were sitting in the red fox's home, which looked more like a manor than a house.

"Man..." The brown raccoon looked at the home of the pistol-carrying vixen, "I didn't know women could really live like this on their own."

"I know that too well." Moaned the beautiful fox, recalling a similar event in her mind. Then, she shook the thought off and said, "Before anything else, I believe introductions are in order. I'm Carmelita Montoya-Fox, formally of España- uh, I mean Spain."

"Spain?" Penelope asked as she resetted herself in her seat on a sofa.

"Sí, I know it sounds a little strange for a woman from that nation to be in a town like this, but it's the only place that has overlooked the fact that I'm a woman and allowed me to be a law enforcer."

"You're an enforcer of the law!?" The three girls exclaimed out loud from the shock of the information.

The amused smile graced the fox's lips, telling anyone that could read them that the vixen liked the reactions of the girls.

"That's right." The vixen winked, allowing Shade to notice the beauty mark that was under the fox's left eye, "The captain of the Cooper Crew gave me the job around a week after we've 'met.'"

"Met?" The panda girl asked, very confused about Carmelita's tone upon saying the last word.

Shade and Penelope knew very well what the vixen's voice meant on the word 'met.'

"Sounds like the captain's a bit of a 'ladies' man,' am I right?" The chocolate-shaded raccoon said to the red fox, who sighed deeply before giving her answer.

"Let me put it this way: he believes that his God's gift to women, at least from how I understand it."

"All women or just the ones he's interested in?" Laughed Shade, who stopped when she saw the daggers in Carmelita's eyes, which the raccoon added, "Just kidding!"

"I hope so." The vixen said, narrowing her brown eyes at the young female raccoon.

Then, the sound of someone pounding on the door echoed throughout the manor-like house, telling all in the home of Carmelita Fox. The vixen was the first to take immediate action and rushed to the door. The other three girls followed the fox to the entrance of her home. Upon arriving at the door, a worried Carmelita opened the door and saw the person who was hammering at the door with his fist.

The creature that stood at the door of the female officer of the law was a huge fuschia gorilla wearing an outfit of mainly navy blue and white. He was over six feet in height and very wide. His face was covered in sweat and worry.

"Hans!" Carmelita exclaimed in shock at the ape's sudden appearance, "What are you doing here?"

"Sheriff Fox, I am glad to seeing you!" The ape gasped out in a Swedish accent, "Razor is causing the trouble again, but this time, he is using a strange mask to do the strange growing of height, and-"

A loud howl pierced into the air, breaking glass, cracking clay pottery and putting splits into wood. Hearing this call caused the ape to wince, while the females knew that something was very wrong and that Razor was behind this.

"I'll be there as soon as I can!" The vixen announced to worried ape. Then, she turned to the three girls and said, "You three, stay here."

"Why?" Shade asked before asking, "Jing King, I can understand, but me and Penelope can be of some kind of help."

"No," Barked the fox, "it's my job to stop people, like Razor, and protect people, like you and your friends. I can't take that kind of risk."

"And what if we insisted to help?" The raccoon asked the fox, who answered by turning to Hans and said, "Hans, stay here and keep this girls here."

"Yes, ma'am!" The ape saluted the sheriff, who turned to the blue-eyed raccoon and said, "Anything else, Shade?"

"Nothing," The brown female answered, "you've made your point."

The sheriff smiled and went off to the area where the holding cell was at, leaving Hans to guard the three girls. Backing off into Carmelita's house, Shade and Penelope exchanged winks between each other as Hans and Jing King followed behind. As they made it back to the den, the raccoon did her most favorite trick: vanishing into thin air.

"What da-!?" The ape exclaimed in fright and shock, "Where did she go?"

The mouse and the panda shrugged their shoulders, looking as confused as the purpleish gorilla.

As the ape asked the two girls about the sudden disappearance of Shade, the she-raccoon was climbing out of Carmelita's window. Shade had respect for the vixen, but she believed that she knew that she could be helpful to the fox.

Inviting herself into the battle, Shade made her way to the part of town that Razor was terrorizing. Upon her arrival, she saw Carmelita and a large group of gorillas tried to talk to Razor.

"Razor, this isn't the way to settle things! Just take off the mask, and we'll talk terms!"

The larger dingo, now wearing a gold and red mask that glowed a bright red aura, growled at the vixen and her men and shouted in a foreign language that even Shade could not understand. Soon, the canine attacked the law enforcers, scattering them. Carmelita Fox was thrown to the raccoon's direction.

"Feeling a little ignored, huh?" Shade asked the fox, who glared at her and said, "I thought I told you to stay at my house!"

"You did." Answered the wood-shaded raccoon, "I just chose to follow you anyway."

Sighing in defeat, the sheriff knew that she needed as much help with the giant dingo at that point.

"Got any ideas, Shade? I'm listening."

"Hmm." The she-raccoon thought for a moment before she answered.

"We need to find a possible weakness on Razor; his rage's a strong point of weakness, but that's not enough to help us stop him."

"Wait!" The vixen remembered something, "I saw a ring on the side of the mask; if we can dislodge the ring, maybe the mask will fall off!"

"Sounds as good as any plan." The young female agreed with the sheriff, who told Shade to stay out of the way, while she took on the over-sized digno. Shade nodded and said, "Understood, but I'll be standby if you need any more help."

"Thanks." Carmelita said politely, although she had no intentions of allowing the brown and black child into the line of fire, and ran off to the remaining members of her posse.

Shade knew that the vixen sheriff did not want her to get involved, but the raccoon did not believe that just shooting at Razor would be the best solution and would only make the huge creature more angry.

It becamed true when the sheriff fired at the dingo several times, which caused him to become bigger in size and maybe more aggressive. After the sudden growth spurt, the red fox, both shocked and confused, looked around for Shade, who was watching the event unfold.

"It's not working too well for you, huh?" The raccoon appeared in front of the sheriff, who replied in a slight tone of annoyance.

"All right, raccoon, if you're so smart, why don't you think of something to stop that over-sized perro?"

"One thing: I have been." The raccoon, known as Shade, anwered, "Secondly, I do believe that I have an idea to stop him."

"What is it, Shade?"

"Well, I still think that the rings are a strong approach, but we need to knock them off without making him even larger. My guess: climb up the brute and trick him to helping us knock the mask off, ring-by-ring."

"Good idea!" Carmelita exclaimed, more than willing to help with plan.

"But there's still a problem, and it's that mask; we need it gone."

"I have a good idea how to destory it." The fox rose the huge pistol to the raccoon's eye level.

"Good point, Carmelita." The raccoon nodded, "However, I think that we need to carry out the plan where no one could get hurt.

"Agreed." Carmelita agreed soundfully.

Both women parted ways: Carmelita to the rooftops and Shade to the ground. As the women took their places, a high-pitched whistle pierced through the air.

"The captain's back!" The sheriff gasped upon hearing the whistle, "If he sees this, I'm going be dismissed!"

The sound grabbed the dingo's attention as he grinned menacingly and turned to the port. Razor was about to make this advance when a shout call reached his ears and said this: "Hey, ya anchor-head! Betcha can't catch me!"

Hearing this made the giant canine growl and forget about the port as his pink eyes saw Shade, who blew a raspberry before vanishing into thin air. A growl flew from the dingo's throat as he looked for the female raccoon.

"'Ey, bet you're too stupid to even caught a couple of girls!" Carmelita's voice called out, grabbing Razor's attention.

The roaring howl ripped the air as Razor saw Carmelita on a roof before he gave chase to the vixen. Behind the sheriff and the huge creature was Shade, visible and ready to fight.

Carmelita led the huge dingo to the town square, knowing there was enough room, in case of an explosion, and everyone was hiding in their homes. Shade noticed what her ally was conjuring in her mind and executed her own part of the plan.

Carefully, the she-raccoon climbed onto the dingo's pants, up to his shirt and reached the right shoulder. Once there, Shade pulled out her silver and brown cane and jumped, attaching the hook with the ring.

The huge Razor saw the stripe-pattern of Shade's tail and realized that the raccoon was on the mask. In an attempt to remove the one that defeated him through trickery, he swatted at her. He successfully removed the girl, however he also knocked off the holding ring to the mask.

Carmelita saw this and saw how well it was doing, however Razor looking for the raccoon, not her. So, she came up with another insult to grabbed the gigantic canine's attention.

"Can't blame ya for getting mad; I would be too if I was dumb enough to allow myself to be tricked to firing pistols that were tampered with!"

The reaction was foreseeable: the dingo's howled angrily once more as his sights was turned to the sheriff, allowing Shade to repeat her actions.

Shade went to the fury-fueled canine, knowin that he would be too pre-occupied with Carmelita to notice the raccoon. Once on the left shoulder, she was about to jump when the pink-eyed dingo noticed her.

"Uh-oh..." Mewed the raccoon as the dingo swatted at her again.

Before the dingo's paw touched her, Shade leaped upwards and used the hook once again to latched to the mask's final ring. Like before, Razor noticed this and swung at her again, removing the raccoon and the ring.

After that, Razor quickly shrunk down to his original size, and the mask, still retaining its huge size made its way to the middle to the square.

"Oh, you're not getting away from me!" Carmelita announced as she aimed her weapon at the trouble-causing mask and fired at it.

The blast hit its mark, destorying the mask. However, the gold and red mask's destruction caused a huge explosion throughout the town square. There were broken glass, splintered wood, soot-covered stones and slightly melted metal, when the fox, who was hit by a part of the force of the blast, realized want happened.

"Ay, ay, ay! That was certainly NOT part of the plan!"

"Boy, you can say that again!" Shade's voice rang out to the sheriff, causing her to turned around and see the raccoon.

"How did you espace the explosion?!" The vixen demanded the younger raccoon, who replied by saying, "The answer's simple: I'm just smart enough to hide behind a building."

"Very cute." Carmelita said sarcatically, as she rolled her amber eyes.

"I wasn't trying to be... cute." Shade annouced, seemingly confused by the term.

"Never mind that!" The vixen sighed out before she allowed herself a motherly smile and said, "Let's go home."

"I could not be anymore happier to hear that." Shade replied with a smile.

Both the fox and the raccoon walked off to the sheriff's home. Unbeknowst to the females, someone had been watching them, using the same technique that Shade used to enter the hidden town and fight off Razor earlier.

"Well, well," the being said as he made himself seeable, "looks like Carmelita finally made a friend. I wonder if she would still be interested of Little Shade after I inform her about the girl's bloodline."

"Captain!" A nasally voice rang out, causing the pair of brown eyes to turn to the direction of the voice's origin.

"Alas," the eyes blinked twice before turning to the departing duo, "looks like she's going to find out tomorrow."

The eyes and their owner vanished into the night. Near a lit torch, a shadow of a raccoon that was male appeared before the shadow revealed a sword that was shaped in the same fashion as Shade's silver cane and swung at the torch, causing the sliced part of the lamp to fall to the ground, snuffing out the flame.

The torch falling caused Shade, who heard it from a distance, turned around at the sound. Carmelita heard it as well, but she felt that it was not appropiate to say anything about it.

"Don't worry about that; it happens more often than you think."

"Maybe so," the she-raccoon replied, still suspicious about the sudden and nearly-silent blackout of the torch's light, "but stuff, like that, isn't normal, even in a hidden port and town."

Carmelita managed to fend off the young girl's curious questions about the vanished light on the way home. Once there, Hans, who was still perplexed by Shade's sudden disappearance, was allowed to go his home. After that, Carmelita told the girls to rest for the following day, knowing that they needed to be registered if they wanted to remain in the town, which the young girls agreed to do.

Once that was settled, the sheriff gave each of the girls a nightgown and a bed for them to sleep in for the night. Soon enough, the girls were asleep, allowing Carmelita to sneak out to the laundry lady's home to get the girls' clothes clean for the next day.

"Oui, sheriff!" The French cat exclaimed joyfully, "Anything for the girl that helped put that Razor to his true place!"

"Glad to hear that." The fox grinned nervously, "Thank you."

The cat smiled as she took the clothes and went to the other room, while Carmelita exited the laundry shop.

"Sheriff!" A gruff voice called out to the vixen, who saw another gorilla.

"Gronk, what are you doing here?" The fox asked.

"I came looking for you!" The ape replied, "You went missing after the explosion."

"Oh! I guess I was pretty tired, huh?"

The gorilla continued, stating, "There is one more thing: the captain wants to see you."

"What's new?" The fox rolled her eyes, knowing the captain would try to swoon her, "Tell him that I'll be at home, if he wants to see me."

"Not this time." Gronk announced, "He wants a meeting with you; something about a thief."

"Business?" The vixen's confusion was evident by sight, "That's strange; he would flirt with me first before going to business."

"Ja," The ape agreed with a nod, "I was surprised at the captain's announcement."

"That makes the both of us," the sheriff agreed, "and he's not getting on my case personally."

"So, what will you do?" The gorilla asked his superior.

"I'll be there as soon as I can, Gronk."

"Should I be telling the captain that?" Shock was in the ape's voice.

"Only if you if you get to the meeting before me." The fox replied with a smile.

"Aye!" Gronk saulted the sheriff before departing, leaving the vixen with many questions.


	4. Chapter 4

The Cooper Crew

Told by Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter Four: A Battle In The Graveyard Of Ships

In the following morning after the events involving the arrival of Shade, Penelope and Jing King, the female mouse was awakened by the sounds of Carmelita Fox entering the house. Upon hearing this, Penelope hopped out of her given bed and went downstairs to meet with the sheriff.

"Carmelita," the mouse with a purple-white fur spoke to the ally of herself and her friends, "what time is it?"

"It's after sunrise." Yawned the tired fox, "I've been at an emergency meeting, so I'm sorry if I appear to be a little tired."

Then, the glasses-wearing female grabbed the bundle that was under the sheriff's arm and placed them on a table, before she helped the exhausted vixen to her bed upstairs.

Once she was in the fox's bedroom, Carmelita slowly went to her bed and flopped onto the soft surface. As she landed, the sheriff fell straight asleep.

Penelope was careful to leave her host's bedroom and closing the door, so no one would disturb her.

Once downstairs, the mouse found that the bundle that she had left on the table to help the sheriff to a bed torn open and revealing the contents of the package to be her clothes as well as well as Jing King's, but she knew right away who opened the bundle.

"Shade..." Penelope shook her head as she grabbed the clothes and went upstairs.

Upon entering the room that she and Shade shared with Jing King, Penelope found the she-raccoon disrobing from her nightgown, which was a dress.

"Penelope!" Shade blushed as the rodent entered the room, waking up Jing King.

"What is making that yell?" The young panda asked with an annoyed groan.

"Sorry about that, Jing King." The raccoon blushed upon seeing the annoyed bear, who returned to sleep.

Once the daughter of the Panda King was asleep once more, the brown raccoon looked at Penelope and said, "Please knock next time."

"Sorry about that, Shade." The mouse replied as she shrugged her shoulders, "Besides, you shouldn't sneak around the house."

A tongue appeared from the raccoon's lips and at the mouse, who was not amused from the gesture that lacked any offense towards her.

"I'm serious about that." Penelope said in a scolding manner, "The sheriff's could put us in the holding cell!"

"Shh!" Shade put her finger to her lips, reminding that their roommate did not want to be disturbed by anyone.

"Oops!" Penelope covered her mouth as Shade pulled her loose shirt onto her body, covering the truth of her gender once more.

Once Shade was dressed, the raccoon grabbed her equipment and exited the room. However, Penelope confronted Shade about the issue that she tried to talk about earlier.

"Shade, you're sneaking about here, like you did back at the orphanage."

"So?" The raccoon replied, "It's just to keep myself on my toes."

A sigh of annoyance flew from the mouse's lips; she knew that Shade was right to a point, but Penelope did not know what to do with the raccoon.

Then, something on Shade's belt caught the mouse's eye, causing Penelope to ask the raccoon, "You're going on?"

"Yeah." The raccoon turned to her friend, "I'm starting to feel anxious."

The mouse sighed loudly again, knowing that she could not stop Shade if she wanted to, but she said, "Please, be careful."

"Don't worry, 'Mother.'" The she-raccoon looked at her friend with a laugh in her voice and eyes, "I'm usually, but I gave no promises on that."

A third sigh was released from Penelope, who wanted Shade to stay. She knew that Shade needed to do this, because whenever Shade becomes anxious, things usually ended badly for them.

Shade smiled as she said, "Bye."

The mouse followed the raccoon outside and watched as her only friend walked down the street and quickly blending into the morning crowd. As she re-entered the house of the sheriff, Penelope mentally prayed for the safety of Shade as she had many times before.

As the she-raccoon made her way through the crowd, Shade became invisible before anyone really noticed her and went to a lamp post, which she climbed to the top.

Upon reaching the top, the female raccoon saw as the morning crowd rushing to reach their destinations for the day as the raccoon looked for the entrance that she and her friends went through the day before. When she found it, Shade hopped from the the post and jumped onto a rope, which was used to help the invisible mammal to her own destination.

Once Shade reached the area that her friends were half-dragged through, she went to the closed opening and found the button that allowed anyone in and out of the hidden town. Seeing her exit opened, Shade went through and found herself in the mist of the ship graveyard.

The graveyard of ships, also known as the Misty Depths, looked very eerie and would confused anyone that day been in the town for a few days. This was no different for Shade, who knew that it was just after sunrise.

"Whoa... This can be a scary place." The raccoon shuddered as she started walking on the sand of the island that hid the town and the Cooper Crew.

As she walked, she saw the lifeboats that she and her allies were in the day before and looked to see if there was anything taken from. However, she found nothing missing or out of place, which only left Shade with a remark about how people were fools that they would not see the potential in Penelope's invention, but then she realized that it was also a good thing on their part. Laughing at herself, Shade left the boats alone.

Then, the she-raccoon sensed that something was following her. Turning around, Shade found no one behind her, and the fog of the depths did little to ease her concerns. Taking a deep breath, she returned to her walk, having failed to the forming footprints in the sand.

As the she-raccoon stepped onto the half-broken deck of a ship, she started to run up, and she made a leap and grabbed a dangling rope, which she used to climb onto the crow's nest.

After the climb, Shade took a better look around the area, but the fog was not aiding the female raccoon again, causing her to groan out of annoyance.

"Damn! l could use my cutlass through this fog, and I'd still see nothing!"

Then, a crow broke through the air, causing Shade to look down from the look-out and saw a dragon's face flying towards her!

Quickly, the female jumped out of the way, but there was hardly any room in the crow's nest, causing the raccoon to fall out. However, Shade was quick enough to grabbed the rope, which was held by a part of the broken ship. Wrapping the rope around her hand and her waist, Shade swung herself to the mast, planting a foot onto the wooden mast.

"What in Heaven's name was that!?" The raccoon looked up to see the dragon-like thing despersed into the air.

A mocking laugh rang out in the air, which made the she-raccoon to look down, and Shade saw a confrontation between two beings on the broken deck.

One was a rooster in purple and gold armor and carried a shield that had blades under the rim. By the odd symbol on the shield told Shade that the rooster was General Tsao.

The other was a raccon in an attire that spoke of a sea-fairing person, but his posture spoke of another term: thief. The most unexpected thing that the she-raccoon saw was that the gray raccoon had a cane with a yellow-gold hook that its shape looked exactly like her own hook.

Then, she remembered that Jing King had told her that a member of the Cooper Crew had a cane that looked like hers. Quickly, she realized that the raccoon was the member the fleeing bride had mentioned.

"So, we meet in combat again." The rooster boasted out to the male raccoon, who was not shy of what he was about to say to the confident chicken.

"And again, I will beat you in battle, you oversized coward."

Naturally, the statement caused the rooster to be outraged by the gray raccoon's words as he yelled back at the mammal.

"You will pay for taking that is mine!"

"She never was yours, Tsao." The raccoon remarked before adding, "Jing King's a person that doesn't want to marry you, not a piece of property that you can buy and sell."

"She's a woman," Tsao rebuffed the statement, "she doesn't know from up or down."

Hearing that statement from the Asian rooster, Shade was outraged, but the raccoon with the brown fur managed to control her temper and actions. She knew she would make Tsao pay for gereralizing women into a single category, which was stupid and beanth men.

"If you want her, you're going to have to fight for her." The raccoon announced as his yellow cane started to glow, as if it was reflecting its master's emotions towards the rooster.

"You're weak, if you rely on others." Tsao shouted out, trying to enrage the male raccoon, who responded with a smirk on his face.

"At least, I know how to treat my friends and allies with kindness."

"Kindness?" The rooster laughed, "Only the weak would rely on kindness, which allows the strong to control them."

"You'd be very surprised what a little kindness can do for some people." The gray and black raccoon retroted.

"Bah!" Hissed the bird, "Let's see what this 'kindness' can do."

Then, Tsao and the cane-weilding raccoon engaged into a fight. The cane clashed against the shield as the battle started to become intense.

Watching the fight from the height of the mast, Shade silently cheered from the cane-weilding raccoon, who somehow reminded the female of someone she knew a long time ago. Shaking off the thought, the she-raccoon saw the male get slammed into the mast, which vibrated from the impact.

"Whoa!" Shade exclaimed as she lost her footing and started to fall.

Quickly, Shade used her heel to grab the mast, while the brown raccoon untied the rope from her waist. With a swing, the female raccoon threw herself, feet first, at Tsao.

The impact sent the rooster flying off of the broken ship and into the salt water.

"Help!" The rooster yelled out, "I can't swim!"

The brown raccoon's blue eyes looked over the the side and saw the wet chicken splashing around. At a normal situation, Shade would be in the water, but she knew that Tsao was trying to trick her or the gray raccoon, who had risen and saw the general pleaing for a rescue.

"You know, that water's only deep enough to allow even a child could wade through it." The male raccoon yelled at the rooster, who hissed at the raccoons.

"I swear I shall get my revenge on you and your crew, Sly Cooper, on my hon-"

Then, the rooster was pulled down, causing some worry to the raccoon that was called Shade.

"What happened to him?"

"Don't worry," the other raccoon laughed, "he's not drowning, much to the disappointment of most of my crew, including the Panda King."

The she-raccoon giggled from the reason behind the Panda King's desire to see Tsao dead, but that caused a question to form in her mind, and Shade voiced it.

"Then, why aren't you allowing him to drown?"

"Well," Sly replied thoughtfully, "I believe that if I kill someone, then a member of their family, if not a loyal servant, would try to kill me or someone close to me. It's already bad enough that there're people willing to kill others into ribbons because of a thieft."

"I see your point." Shade stated upon processing the words.

Then, a harpoon flew out of the water and hit the side of one of the wrecked ships. Tied on the end was a rope with an entangled Tsao, whose beak had a piece of rope in it.

Sly looked over the side and saw a purple marine iguana in the water in an odd attire that covered most of its body.

"Good job, Dimitri!" The male raccoon shouted to the reptile.

Then, Shade looked over at the lizard and added, "Espeically putting the rope in Tsao's beak!"

"Anytime!" Dimitri replied in a French accent before he dove under the water.

Then, Sly looked at Shade and asked, "Wanna know what's gonna happen to him?"

"I've already have an idea of what's gonna to happen to him." The female raccoon said flatly.

"What is it?" Sly asked.

"If I had my way, I'd send him on a rowboat straight to China." Shade answered as she turned to walk away.

"Is that so?" The male asked the female, who said, "Of course, that's just my opinion."

As Shade started to walk away, she heard Sly's hearty laugh echoing in the fog.

Then, she entered the entrance of the hidden town and went to her friends at Carmelita's house.

"Shade!" Penelope the fully-dressed, blonde-haired mouse ran towards the brunette raccoon, "I was worried about you!"

"Don't worry." Shade rolled her eyes at the mouse's concern-filled words, "I'm alright."

"That's not the point!" Penelope shouted at Shade, "I've just heard that General Tsao is near the town and looking for Jing King!"

"That's true." Shade remarked as her blue eyes looked the opposite direction of her ally, which told the mouse that the she-raccoon was not telling her everything.

"Shade..."

"Tsao's tied up at the moment."

"And how did he get 'tied up?'"

As Shade sensed the annoyance of her friend's brown eyes, the raccoon told the mouse of what happened to her when she went out of the town, the short battle between Tsao and Sly Cooper and the encounter with the latter.

"What?!" The mouse shouted out at the raccoon, "You've met Sly Cooper!?"

"Yeah." Shade shrugged her shoulders, looking like she did not care about the identity of the male raccoon, "So?"

"You've claimed to have paid attention to the rumors of the pirates back at Blood Bath Bay!" The mouse yelled at Shade, who gave her response.

"So what if he is the captain of the Cooper Crew?"

This statement enraged the blonde mouse, who was becoming very irritated at the raccoon.

"Penelope," Shade looked at the only friend she ever had, "ever thought about your family?"

Penelope's fury subsided; the only time that Shade would ask questions like that if she saw something that jolted the raccoon's memories of a time before the orphanage.

"You saw something, didn't you?" The mouse asked.

"Big time." The raccoon nodded her head soberly, "Also, it was two things."

"What were they?" The glasses-wearing mouse asked her friend.

"One was Sly's cane; it was shaped and looked almost exactly like mine." The raccoon answered the question of her friend, "And the second thing was when I saw the raccoon's face, I recognized his face."

"Really?" Penelope mused at the thought, recalling that Shade had told her that the raccoon had recognized the gray hook years before the duo ever met.

"Yeah." Shade sighed out before she said in her annoyance, "It annoys me that I can't remember!"

A nearly sadistic smile formed on her face as Penelope watched Shade throw a fit out of frustation from not being able to recall where she saw Sly's face. It was mostly because Shade often annoyed Penelope with her nonchalant approch to mostly everything that the two girls had encountered over the last few years.

Then, the evil grin faded from the blonde mouse's face, as she remembered that Shade hardly remembers her family. The dark thought turned into a realization and caused Penelope to become regretful.

"Don't worry." Penelope smiled at the brown raccoon, "It's going to be alright. All we have to do is stay here for a few days until we're able to reach the treasure."

"Treasure?" Shade looked at the brown-eyed mouse, "I know that we still have a treasure chest with our names on there, but it didn't interest me at the moment."

"I was trying to cheer you up." The mouse backed from her friend.

"I appreciate the try," the raccoon smiled weakly, "but I'm not in the mood for treasure."

"Well..." Penelope looked at her feet, lacking no more things to say to Shade.

"Girls." Carmelita's voice rang out to the two friends.

Shade noticed that the sheriff looked a little tried, but the vixen did managed to get some amount of sleep, and knowing this made the she-raccoon happy.

"Everyone's awake?"

"Yes, ma'am." The mouse nodded to the vixen, who saw Shade and became a little worried about the raccoon.

"You alright?" The fox asked the raccoon, who said, "I am."

"Let's get some breakfast." Penelope said, pointing to the kitchen, "Jing King's in there right now."

"Let's go." Shade made her way to the kitchen, leaving Penelope and Carmelita worried about the she-raccoon.

Looking at the mouse, the sheriff asked, "Is there something wrong with her?"

"There is, but she won't tell untiI she feels better." Penelope answered as she followed her friend.

Feeling somewhat defeated, the sheriff decided to allow Shade sometime before she would ask any more questions to the duo. Her hunger set in from her stomach, reminding the vixen that she should also eat before starting her day. The sheriff of the hidden town went after her slightly younger friends to join them for breakfast.


	5. Chapter 5

The Cooper Crew

Told by Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter Five: Fire in the Hole

It was noon, when the newcoming girls and the sheriff was making their way to the home of the Cooper Crew's captain, which Carmelita requested the trio to do after their morning meal. The girls, which consisted of Shade the raccoon, Penelope the mouse and Jing King the panda bear, agreed, knowing that it was for the best at the time.

Soon, the four young women were standing at the front of Sly Cooper.

"So," Carmelita spoke to the younger girls, "you ready?"

"As I'll ever be." The she-raccoon commented as she shrugged her shoulders, which expressed her uncertainity about the situation.

"I know that I am." Penelope replied, more positive about the outcome of joining the hidden town than Shade was.

"I am." Jing King nodded to the female sheriff, "I just want to see my father again."

"And you will, Jing King," the amber-eyed fox replied the panda bear's words, "but you need to be registered first."

"Understood." The daughter of the Panda King bowed a little before she followed the vixen into the building with Shade and Penelope, who needed to register as well.

As the four females reached the double doors of the home of the captain, a roar ripped through the air of the town, which caused the women to look back. The roar's source was a huge, colorful Chinese dragon.

"Ay caramba!" Carmelita exclaimed in her native language before asking, "What's is that!?"

"A guardian dragon!" Jing King's voice trembled in fear, "It must be a guardian of the Tsao clan!"

"Into the house!" Shade yelled as she saw the fire spewing from the creature's mouth, prompting her and the other females in her group to retreat into Sly Cooper's home.

Once inside, the sheriff asked the girls, "Are you three okay?"

"It's not one of my better days," the female raccoon answered first, "but I'll live."

"Same here." The mouse answered with a slight shaking in her voice.

"The dragon of the Tsao clan is here!" Jing King stated in disbelief; she had the most powerful reason to fear the dragon.

"What do we do now?" Penelope asked Shade, who would have answered, if the sheriff did not answered first.

"You three are staying here, while I help fight off that creature."

"Hey!" Shade yelled in protest, but the female law enforcer was firm as she added, "Don't even try to undermind me... again! I can't risk another person's life, even if they think so little of their own! Now, stay here!"

With that stated to the trio, mostly Shade, Carmelita ran off outside to help defend the town that she was sworn to protect.

Not one to stay behind when an important fight was happening, Shade turned to Penelope and said, "Who does she think she's talking to? A couple of kids?"

"Duh!" The purple-tinted mouse replied, not wanting to join the battle, "Besides, we don't know how to fight a creature like that!"

"Doesn't mean I can't try." Shade expressed an artful grin of her face, telling her ally for years that she was going to join the fight, no matter what.

"You're nuts!" The mouse roared at the raccoon, who said, "Maybe, but there could be something about this town that's worth the fight."

Sighing in defeat, Penelope announced, "If you're going out there, it's your black spot; I'll be here making sure that Tsao doesn't try to grab Jing King."

"Good idea." Shade smiled at the mouse, showing her friendship in the true smile, "See ya on the other side."

"That only counts if you die." The rodent girl announced, reflecting her friend's smile as she heard Shade's laugh before the raccoon went out of the building to face the dragon. As her friend left, Penelope said, under her breath, "Good luck, Shade."

As Shade entered into the part of the town that the foreign creature was hovering over, the brown raccoon bobbed and waved to evade being hit by the bursts of flames that flew from the dragon's mouth.

By the time that she dodged the fourth stream of fire, Shade had managed to hide in a local pub in the hidden town, which she knew that it wasn't the safest place in the world.

With a mild curse under her breath, the brown and black raccoon panted as she rested for a moment. Then, she asked herself, "How am I going to take down that beast?"

Then, she recalled an event that happened to her and Penelope years earlier, which involved grog, a drink for intoxicated pirates, and that gave her an idea.

"I better make this quick!" The raccoon said to herself alone as she started to raid the tavarn of its primary source of profit.

Soon, Shade had some of the alcholic drinks on her person; some were in her belt, one was in her shirt, and there was one in each of her shoes. At this point, the first part of her plan was completed, and she needed the second ingredient for her plan.

After departing from the bar, Shade made her way to the Silver Serpent, the vessel of the Cooper Crew. She knew that it was her fault, in part, that the hidden town's supply of gun powder was destoryed, but she knew from rumors that the Cooper Crew used bombs and fireworks whenever the Silver Serpent was in battle.

The younger bandit ran throughout the town and dodged the blazes that was spewed onto the town and the people that were trying to put out the flames. She knew that the efforts were meaningless if the reason behind the fires were still flying in the open area above the town.

Upon arriving on dock, Shade did her best to evade the busy pirates that were trying to help to put out the blazes that threatened the town hidden by mist and rock and to kill the fire-breathing beast that whirled in the air. Shade was successful in reaching the powder room, where the gun powder for the ship was stored, but she was almost caught by a huge panda bear, whom Shade thought was Jing King's father.

"That was close." Shade wiped her brow after the huge being ran off to the captain's quarters on the ship, allowing the she-raccoon to enter the powder room and grabbed and placed a huge amount of the black powder in a burlap sack that she found in the room.

"Now, I have to get back to-" Shade started to speak under her breath, but she was interrupted by a loud shout from her right.

"Hey! What were ya doing in there!?"

Shade looked at the owner of the booming voice, and she saw a pink hippopotamus wearing a baby blue shirt that was a size or two smaller than any shirt that would fit him, a red bandana and brown gloves and boots. The raccoon were that she was being addressed by the famed helmsman, Murry, from the stories of the Cooper Crew.

"I'm here to help stop that oversized snake from destorying the town." Shade made no attempt to be polite, since she knew that it was not the right time for manners.

"With gun powder and booze?" The pink mammal asked, clearly confused about what the she-raccoon had said and had in her possession.

"Hey, it's the best I've got!" The raccoon stated before she tried to leave the ship, only to be stopped by a small box turtle.

Shade knew that the green reptile was Bentley, the genius that designed many things on the Silver Serpent to help them win the battles. The she-raccoon were that Bentley was smart enough to design the bomb that she was thinking of, but she did not want to insult her friend, Penelope, by asking for the turtle's help.

"Well, that's not a bad idea." The glasses-wearing turtle stated upon stopping the female intruder, who was a little pleased to hear an honest compliment from a male.

"So," the turtle asked, "whom were you going to ask to help you build this bomb?"

"My best friend." Shade answered, "Also one of the greatest minds to ever trasverse over these seas and to enter this town."

"Ha!" The genius scoffed at the statement, "That's what you say; I'll prove you wrong! Just follow me!"

Shade had no chioce; between the chaos of the Cooper Crew, Murry and Bentley, chances were strong that they were not shy about telling the captain about her attempt at theft. With a firm expression of strength, Shade obeyed and followed Bentley with Murry behind her to make sure that she does not escape.

In a workshop, which was under the deck, Bentley, Shade and Murry went to work to build a bomb, which Shade was surprise of how fast the small turtle was able to build it.

"Voila!" The turtle actually bragged out, "You've just witnessed my genius at work!"

"Let's not get too excited with triumph just yet." Shade said, causing the turtle to glare at her, "Let's make sure that bomb can give that beast a good taste of his own medicine."

The two males were a little shocked at the she-raccoon's words as if the words reminded them of someone they were. The genius and the helmsman looked at each other in their confusion, until Shade spoke to them again.

"Hey, do you two know where the highest point is at in town?"

"Why, at the water tower." Bentley answered, "But even if you could reach the top without difficulty, grabbing the dragon's attention would cause trouble for the town's water supply."

"Don't worry about that." The brown raccoon grinned slyfully, "Destorying the tower is not in any part of my plan."

The two members of the Cooper Crew were shocked by Shade's words again, but this time, Shade saw this, and she took this as an opportunity to take the bomb and leave the duo in their dumbfounded state.

Knowing that there was no time to lose, the young bandit of pirates ran as fast as she could to the water tower, dodging the flames and avoiding bumping into people along the way, and as soon as she was at the base of the tower, Shade pulled out her sword and her silver hook and started climbing the tower.

As she climbed up, the raccoon saw the dragon flying towards the tower. In her given postition, she knew that the fire-spewing creature was not going to hit it, but it was going to be close enough for her to get on it. Shade climbed faster to make sure that she could reach the dragon before it was too late.

Shade managed to reach the top of the tower, put away her weapons and in time to jump onto the dragon's back, which had a row of protuding scales on its back, and the raccoon's landing was noticed by the dragon, which twisted its neck and looked at the she-raccoon.

"Yikes!" Shade said upon seeing the demon-like eyes of the creature, before she recovered and started to head towards the dragon's face.

The creature roared as it spewed fire at the raccoon with brown fur, who managed to jump and leap over each wave of fire. Seeing that Shade was coming closer to its head, the dragon turned away from the raccoon and started spinning around in the air, but after two mintues of barrel rolls and twisting turns. Shade managed to stay on and even made it to the throwing distanse of the beast's mouth.

"I'm almost there." Shade started to sigh, almost falling to see the dragon's flaming tongue swinging at her.

Luck was on Shade's side, since she was able to evade the fiery tongue. However, the beast had another trick to play: slamming its claws onto its back, which was done by twisting its legs. Shade also managed to dodge the slams, causing her to make a quick action.

Pulling the bomb from her pocket, the brown and black raccoon threw the explosive devise, which ends up louged in the dragon's teeth. Seeing that it was a matter of time, Shade hopped off the dragon's back before the beast breathed fire again.

The fuming animal attempted to breath fire again, but this time, it would activate the bomb, causing an explosion, which dazed the serpent-like beast into diving into the ocean. The dragon's impact into the sea caused the Silver Serpent to rock roughly in the water for a few moments, and then the rocking stopped.

Moments passed by, until a tenticle of the Crusher appeared from the water's depthes with a purple koala and the koala made an announce in his native language. Upon the announcement, the whole town cheered with unbridled joy, despite that the town still had fire on some of the buildings. Soon, the pirates and citizens were celebrating the dragon's defeat. Some were still working on the ending the fire, while most were dancing and singing in the streets.

The Cooper Crew members, Bentley and Murry, were pleased about their involvement and the success of Shade, who was in a barrel of pickles that the raccoon had landed into after hopping off the dragon before the explosion. Upon landing in the barrel, the lid that was slightly covering the opening flew into the air and landed on Shade's head.

As the young teen rubbed the sore spot on her head, a familiarly shaped shadow draped itself over the raccoon, who looked up at Sheriff Carmelita Montoya-Fox, and the expression on the vixen's amber eyes told Shade that she was in deeper trouble than she ever would be with the dragon.

With a sheepish grin, Shade pulled a pickle from the barrel and offered it to her, which was followed by a goofy chuckle.

In response to the 'offer,' the sheriff pulled the raccoon out of the barrel, shackled Shade's wrists and ankles and dragged the brown raccoon to the holding cell, where Shade was put into until Carmelita could think of something to do with the disobedient she-raccoon.

Along the way to the holding cell, Carmelita was hit by complaints, insults and harsh names, which all of them were nothing new to her, but she understood the reason behind the disagreement; Shade had saved the town twice, and there were rumors about the she-raccoon helping the captain with his entrapment of Tsao. However, she knew that Shade disobeyed her direct orders, and the brown and black raccoon had escaped from one of her men earlier; these were things that Carmelita just cannot ignore any longer by any means, since it was a matter of personal pride in her job and in for herself.

The vixen was a little surprised that Shade failed to resist, but by judging from the barrel lid next to the barrel and seeing the she-raccoon rubbing her head, the sheriff knew that Shade was in no shape or mood to fight back. She was a little relieved that she did not have struggle with the raccoon, but she felt a little regretful about taking advantage of the girl's dazed state.

After Carmelita left Shade in a cell to talk to the Cooper Crew's captain, Shade was lying on a flat bench that was made into a bed. She needed to lay down between the events of that day and the day before, it was the perfect time to relax and rest for a while.

As she was about to fall asleep, the raccoon heard a extremely familiar sound: a tone in a whistle that Shade had taught only one person.

"Penelope..." Groaned the male-looking raccoon as she turned to the only window in the holding cell and saw the mouse, who was accompanied by Jing King.

"Can't a girl get some sleep around here?" Shade half-whined at the purple-tint she-mouse, who replied by saying, "Not if she's going to be hunged by the Cooper Crew!"

"I'm sensing that you're a little upset." Shade pointed at the mouse, who quickly and harshly replied to the raccoon.

"Would you blame me!?"

"Hey!" One of the gorilla guards shouted to the direction of Penelope and Jing King, who said to the mouse, "I believe it is time to leave."

"Blast!" The mouse nearly cursed out before saying good bye to Shade and ran off with the Panda King's daughter.

"Well," Shade said to herself as she pulled a small bottle of booze from her shoe, "at least I can enjoy a little drink before I deal with anyone else for a while."

"Hey!" The guard that chased off Shade's friends shouted at the she-raccoon, "No drinking of the alcohol in the cell of the holding. Give it to me now!"

Not happy about being told to give up her drink, Shade obliged, knowing that if she resisted the idea that things would only get worse for her.

"Thank you." The guard said to Shade with a friendly smile, before saying, "I am sorry that you are in the cell of the holding, but you disobeyed the boss. I am hoping that you would be at most spared of the punishment the boss is planning for you."

With that said, the guard departed, leaving Shade by herself again and failing to notice that Shade had pulled out her other bottle of liquor from her left shoe.

"No," Shade said in a cunning tone of voice, "thank you." With that said, the she-raccoon proceeded to drink the beverage, which tasted better than she had expected it. Pulling the drink from her lips, she said, "Not bad at all."


	6. Chapter 6

The Cooper Crew

Told by Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter Six

Hours following the attack of Tsao's dragon and its defeat, the Cooper Crew's captain had removed the venmous general from the town and the Misty Depths, allowing Jing King to feel relief for the first time in months. The residents of the hidden port of the crew had started rebuilding their home, and soon Carmelita Montoya-Fox was on her way to the holding cell, where she had place Shade in earlier, to talk to the reckless heroine.

"Going somewhere, Senorita Montoya-Fox?" The all-too-familiar and all-too-often suave voice of the Cooper Crew's captain rang into the vixen's pointed ears.

"As usual," the sheriff of the hidden town spoke in response to her 'question,' "you're always where I don't need you the most." Then, she turned to the gray raccoon and added, "And I don't need you right NOW!"

"Now, Carmelita," Sly retorted politely, "I know that this looks like one of my attempts of trying to obtain your heart, but this time, it's a little different."

"It's not?" Doubt was engulfed in the female fox's voice, "Are you sure, Sly?"

"You doubt me?" The gentleman-like manner of the gray raccoon mixed with false emotional pain as he asked.

"Well..." Carmelita thought for a small time before saying, "Of course."

Sly's rolled his brown eyes, knowing that the vixen witht the blue hair had some of a reason to doubt him to an extent.

"Well, I plan on pulling that girl out of that cell you've dumped her in for defeating a dragon." Sly chuckled a little.

"No!" The female fox nearly reverted to her native language in her ire, "She disobeyed my direct orders to stay behind."

"And in doing so, saved the town from being converted into ashes." The male stood in defense of the brown and black she-raccoon.

Carmelita huffed in her defeat at Sly's words, and she went off to Shade's cell with another loud huff.

"She's as stubborn as ever." Sly commented under his breath about the sheriff, "However, having another raccoon that's causing her trouble isn't going to make things easy for her."

Then, the captain of the Cooper Crew proceded to follow the sheriff of the hidden town without any attempt to be sleathly or hiding himself from the vixen's sight.

Soon, both the sheriff and the captain reached the holding cell when the both of them detected a scent from the cell.

"Oh, no!" A yellow glove found itself on Carmelita's face in the sheriff's dismay, "She's been drinking in here!"

"Well, it could be worse." Sly commented in an attempt to calm the orange vixen's fury, "She could be drunk right now."

"That's not helping, Sly!"

"Well, that's the worst I could think of at this point."

"And you've not dealt with the kind of beings that were under the influence of the grog!" Carmelita accused accurately, since the only drink with alcohol was wine, which was used to keep the water from becoming stagnant.

"Point granted." Sly admitted, "However, she didn't have enough to make her drunk, according to Bentley."

Then, she should be only numb." The female sheriff assumed before going towards the holding cell and seeing she-raccoon asleep in the bottom bunk with a bottle at the foot of the "bed." With a groan on her lips, Carmelita muttered some Spanish under her breath about the girl, while Sly, who followed the sheriff, reached the vixen's side and made a comment about the girl in the cell.

"Well, this makes things a little more difficult." Sly chuckled nervously as he noticed Shade in an alcohol-induced slumber.

"Indeed..." The vixen moaned loudly, knowing that Sly would stay until Shade was somber and awake, and try to "get to know her a little better."

After a small time, Carmelita and Sly waited for Shade to wake up and spent most of the time playing cards, which surprised the lady sheriff greatly. Most of the time, the raccoon would try to flirt with her, but that was the first time that Sly suggested to play cards. This caused Carmelita to think what Shade was to Sly.

Then, both the captain and the sheriff heard a moan echo from the cell that the she-raccoon was in, and the both of them went to her.

"Sounds like that she's waking up." Sly said with a tone of relief in his voice; he was losing to Carmelita badly.

"And you're right." Carmelita nodded, a little surprised that Sly was losing the card game; another sign of Sly's distracted state of mind.

Then, Sly and Carmelita saw Shade struggling to stand up as the she-raccoon made an oddly clear statement to whomever heard it.

"I don't feel so good... I think I've grabbed some of the harder stuff from that tavren."

"That's not a very big surprise." Carmelita's accent was strong with her fury and annoyance.

Hearing this, the chocolate and licorice hued raccoon turned to the direction of the Spanish fox and said in a dazed, yet clear, manner, "Hi! It's been a while, huh?"

"If you call a few hours a while, then yes." Carmelita smiled weakly, happy about Shade being slightly intoxicated but also still annoyed with her being drunk in the first place.

Shade smiled before she tried to take a step, but her altered state of mind nearly caused her to fall to the ground, but Shade was quick enough to direct herself to the bunk. This sight worried Sly and Carmelita both at the side time and equally.

"This might take a while..." The vixen groaned at the sight of the she-raccoon, while Sly agreed by saying, "Maybe it would be a good idea for me to go get some fresh water."

"Good idea." The sheriff agreed, while a refreshed sense of shock returned to the vixen's mind as she watched the captain of the Cooper Crew depart.

Concern flooding into Carmelita's mind as she tried to figure out what was going on with Sly; he was not flirting with her, lost several card games and offered to bring in some water. This was not the normal Sly Cooper she had come to admire his bravery as well as annoyed with his advances, and they were usually around the same time.

"Hey, Carmelita." Shade spoke with a hiccup at the end, "Looks like you're worried about Captain Sly Cooper, huh? You like him, huh?"

As a rouge of red appeared on her face, the sheriff said in a quick answer, "Don't be silly! You're just drunk!"

"Maybe." The brown and black raccoon retorted the response, "But a blind man can tell that you've got feelings for the Captain, huh?"

"I still say it's the grog talking." The sheriff announced in an attempt to silence and reason with the drunken raccoon.

"He's back." Shade announced a statement before another hiccup escaped from her lips.

Turning around, the blue-haired vixen saw no one there. Annoyed, Carmelita turned to Shade and started to scold her about the things that the she-raccoon was seeing due to the alcohol in her system.

"This is one of the reasons I don't approve of heavy drinking: you're seeing things that weren't even there!"

"With all due respect to ya, Carmelita," Shade responded half-somberly, "but the captain's really there, and he's heading towards ya in full speed."

Before the sheriff could scold the she-raccoon again, a pair of invisible hands grabbed Carmelita's shoulders, frightening her enough to cause her to let out a shriek of fright. Following the scream, the sound of Sly's laughter echoed throughout the area, and the laughter continued when Sly became visible once more.

"Captain," Shade moaned in pain as she gave her review of the prank, "That's just wrong."

"Well," Sly managed to speak between chuckles, "Carmelita should have listened to you."

The sheriff was not amused and very irked at the raccoon captain of the Cooper Crew as she recovered from her moment of fright and confronted him about his pranks, and not just the one he just pulled on her.

"Sly, this is the one of the reasons why I'll refuse to be courted by you!"

"Here we go." Shade announced upon seeing and hearing the fury of the Spanish vixen and sat back and watched the events unfold before her.

"Carmleita," Sly started to speak in an attempt to calm the vixen down, "it was a little lark, an innocent prank. It's nothing more than that."

"I don't care, Sly!" The sheriff yelled back at the captain, "I don't find it as amusing as you do!"

"Oh, Carmelita!" The gray raccoon tried to talk to the sheriff, who just waIked off to Shade's cell and gave the hungover raccoon a glass bottle with an odd-looking cap on it.

"What's with the cork?" The she-raccoon hiccupped as she looked at the cap.

"Just twist the top off." The sheriff instructed the cell's main resident, who obeyed the law enforcer, and twisted the top right to left and opened the bottle.

"Wow!" Shade's somewhat dazed state failed to deter her abilities to be amazed at something that she knew that Penelope would be interested in, "A twistable cork!"

"No," Carmelita giggled at the she-raccoon's statement, "Bentley calls it a twistable cap, which allows easy access to the contents in it, usually water."

"All right!" Shade, the brown raccoon, cheered before placing bottle's opening to her lips and chugged down a few gulps before freeing her mouth. Once the bottle was no longer on Shade's lips, the she-raccoon, who was feeling better, said, "That's a good idea!"

3"Good to hear." Giggled a less-annoyed vixen that was Carmelita, "I'm sure that Bentley would like to hear that as well."

"I'll tell him myself as soon as I get outta here." Shade laughed sheepishly as she remembered that she was in the holding cell.

"Of course." Carmelita smiled as she reached to her pocket to pull out the keys that she had, only to find the keys missing. This caused the sheriff to turn her attention to Sly.

"Sly, where are the keys?"

The gray raccoon looked straight at the vixen and replied to the accusation, "It wasn't me, Carmelita! Honest!"

"I don't believe you!" The outraged fox shouted to the male, who continued to defend himself from the vixen's immature accusations.

As the confrontation raged on between a furious Carmelita and a defensive Sly, Shade was grinning as she carefully used the keys that she swiped from the sheriff's pocket, when the vixen gave her the bottled water, to open the cell door. As soon as she unlocked the door, the brown and black raccoon took the same caution as she made her exit.

Once out of the cell, Shade ran off to find Penelope, who should be waiting for her outside by the rowboat, making sure that the rowboat was ready for departure and hoping that none of the Cooper Crew and the citizens of the hidden port town had done anything to the boat.

Shade and Penelope were masters of making up back-up plans, since they were anything could happen, and something usually does to them. This habit became a little more re-enforced when they were betrayed by another thief of the seas, which led to them almost getting killed.

Once outside and in the night air, the she-raccoon saw the mouse waiting for her to come out of the town.

"Penelope!" Shade spoke out to the purple-tinted mouse, who looked at the raccoon and gave her an angry look as she said, "It's about time!"

"Sorry." The raccoon that was Shade replied, "I had time it for me to escape."

"I know." Groaned the mouse with blonde hair, "It's just that I'm wanting to leave before the whole crew finds out about why we came here in the first place."

"I wouldn't be surprised if they already know; after all, the Cooper Crew is imfamous for their abilites of obtaining information." Shade chuckled a little.

A groan flew from her lips as the mouse entered the lifeboat, and Shade followed her friend's actions. Soon, the both of them were on at sea once again with the guidence of the crescent moon that time.

"So, did you say good-bye to Jing King for the both of us?" The raccoon asked Penelope, who said in response, "Yeah, I did."

"So, how did she take it?"

"Well, Shade, she was a little upset, but she was understanding about how we did things."

"All right."

"I also added that we were happy to help her out."

"Good, Penelope. I'm just that Tsao's not gonna try to get her, even if it's only for a small time."

"Yeah," the mouse nodded in agreement before adding, "especially since she's back with her father."

"I hope that she and her father..." A pause came for a moment before Shade finished, "I hope they don't have to worry about that chicken for a while."

"Me too."

Then, the two friends fell into silence for a time that seemed to be endless; the both of them regreted leaving the hidden town that was the base of the Cooper Crew, but they knew that as long as LeFwee was after them, the town would be in danger of being attacked be the "Smartest Man of the Seven Seas."

"Hey, Shade." Penelope spoke up, breaking the agony-filled silence, "We've forgotten to untie the rope from Jing King's boat."

"Huh?" The she-raccoon was confused by her friend's words as she looked behind and saw the fancy boat being pulled behind their rowboat.

"That's going to be a problem for us." Penelope stated in a moment of dismay.

"Well, I beg to differ." Shade looked at the boat was being pulled along, which caused the mouse to be concerned.

"Oh, no..." A moan flew out of her mouth as Penelope realized that Shade turned to her and said, "I've got a plan, but it's going to take a while."


	7. Chapter 7

The Cooper Crew

Told by Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter Seven: Some Treasure and Some Tricks

The sun had already rose above the horizon, as a single lifeboat landed on the shore of Dagger Island, the resting place of the loot of Reme Lousteau, which had a lone rider in it. The rider, Shade, hopped out of the boat, turned to face the sea, grinned at her friend that was in the other rowboat and returned her attention to the island. As swiftly and quietly as she could, Shade went into a grouping of rocks and stayed there for a while.

While waiting for Shade to leave the rocks, Penelope was quaking with fear, knowing LeFwee would try to recapture her again, but her tremblings were mixed with excitement, knowing that the treasure alone was enough to send the girls into an early retirement. The mouse was musing at the thoughts of living the remainer of her life in ease and relief, when she noticed that Shade, who had a shovel in her hand, was leaving the large rocks.

Soon, the brown raccoon quietly made her way to the site of the treasure, which was well hidden by a message, which was an "S.O.S." that was formed by a collection of white rocks. Reaching the "O," Shade started digging the site, doing the best that she could.

Upon hearing a thud, Shade sighed out, "Finally," as she went to the knees and pulled out a chest with some difficultly.

"Well, this is the not your smartest move, lassie." Announced the voice of the captain of the Death Hen, LeFwee.

Turning to the pirate's direction and seeing the bird and the crew that was behind him, Shade replied, "Oh! For a moment there, I thought you were Blackbeak."

"Bah!" The parrot shouted out to the raccoon, "You maybe quick with the put-downs, but you're the one that is going into Davy Jones's Locker."

Then, the band of cutthroats quickly grabbed the she-raccoon and tied her up with some strong rope around her wrist and her waist.

"Now, to the Death Hen with her." Ordered the pirate parrot before he added to some of the other underlings, "You dogs, go look around the island for a mouse with yellow hair and bring her to the ship. I don't want her escapin' me grasp again."

Immediately, the sea dogs that were assigned to find Penlope scrambled and scattered around, while the those that were told to "escort" the captured she-raccoon to the ship that was beached on the other side of the isle.

Shade was tied up at the main mast for about an hour before she heard one of the members of the search party reporting back to the captain.

"Captain, I bring news about the search." The golden retriever gulped fearfully as he spoke, "We've found nothing of the blonde mouse."

"Nuthin'!?" The pirate squawked at the underling, who was quickly trying to explain the reason for the lack of success.

"T'is not our fault! I think the mouse never came to the isle!"

LeFwee was about to run his blade into the misfortunant canine when he realized and recalled something about the events a few weeks before. Swiftly turning his attention from the pirate, who nearly fainted from fright, the black and red parrot nearly flew to the chest and opened it, and he found it to be empty.

"Bah!" LeFwee cursed as he kicked the treasureless chest away from himself before directing his fury to one of the people that was responible for his unability to obtain the Lousteau treasure: Shade.

"Blast ya! You've managed to make sure that I won't get the treasure and the girl! I should throw ya to the sharks and chum the waters before I do that!"

Shade made no attempts to deny the accusation that was made by LeFwee; it was the plan. Shade had dug up the treasure, while on the island, knowing that the parrot would go after it, and relocated it before her return to Blood Bath Bay. Another part of the plan was that Penelope went to shore after the raccoon did and put the gold and jewels into the row boats.

Then, a powerful stench made its way to the imprisoned raccoon's nose, causing the chocolate and licorice fur to brustle in reaction. Shade knew right away it was the chum that LeFwee said that he "should" do before throwing her into the ocean to become shark bait. The raccoon looked at the left side of her and saw the fish parts being dumped from buckets, and she became concerned.

Upon the final bucket becoming empty of chum, Shade felt the rope loosen from her body and the mast, but five pirates surrounded her and made sure that the rope that were still on her wrists and waist was secure beofre leading her to the other side of the ship that she entered. The she-raccoon knew that LeFwee was going to mock Shade in her current situation.

"So, lass, ya have any last words before I send ya to your 'escorts' and to Davy Jones's Locker?"

"Yeah," Shade answered smugly to the captain and the crew, "get this over with; I'm dying of bordom out here!"

LeFwee, annoyed by the female raccoon's words, obliged Shade's words and swung a fist at the girl's face. That action sent the curtly raccoon off the Death Hen.

Shade's landing was uncomfortable, but landing in a small pile of gold and jewels was considered better than landing shark-infested waters, which was laced with chum.

"We're outta here!" Penelope's voice rang out to Shade, whose ears perked up as the raccoon sat up to see the mouse girl use her Pulley-Paddle System to make their escape.

"What!?" LeFwee screeched out for everyone, including the two fleeing females, to hear him, "After them!"

The fearfully crew obeyed without any question. At the captain's demand, the anchor was lifted, the sails were opened and the cannons were loaded and aimed at the rowboats.

In a good distance from the Death Hen, Shade and Penelope noticed that the ship under LeFwee's command was after them within two to four minutes. Both girls were impressed at the speed of the crew, but it also confirmed that LeFwee was extermely short-tempered.

Most people, in the friends' situation, would be worried about their chances of being able to outrun a wind-powered ship by using a simple paddling machine, but Shade and Penelope were well-aware of the chances, and that is why they had a sure thing to give them the chance to escape LeFwee and his crew.

Then, the bottom-right side of the ship of the Death Hen splitered from the two explosions that came, which surprised the pirates of the ship and arousing LeFwee's fury even more.

"I'll get even with ya wenches, or I'm not LeFwee, the Smartest Man on the Seven Seas!" The ebony and blood parrot shouted loud enough to reach the friends' ears.

The two friends heard this and giggled, knowing that LeFwee was not going to find them in their new home. With a loot of gold and jewels, Penelope paddled until the Death Hen was out of their sight, after which she took a rest.

"That was a good plan." The light lavender mouse panted out as she removed her bandana from her head and used it to wipe off the sweat from her face and glasses.

"And the getaway was good." Shade smiled for a moment before rubbing her back, which landed on the gold, "Although, landing on a pile of treasure does have its setbacks."

The mouse giggled at Shade's pain, which the mouse believed that the raccoon deserved for egging on LeFwee as Shade did. Soon, she recalled something about the event that caused Penelope to ask a question.

"What did LeFwee do to you when you made that snide remake to him?"

"He landed his fist into my face." Shade answered as her hand removed itself from her back and went to the left side of her face, "And that was the why I landed on the gold the way I did."

Penelope's giggling converted into laughter, and it was loud enough that if anyone was sailing by, they would have hear it.

Shade, sighing out her mild annoyance and shaking her head, went to the system and started paddling, knowing was going to be a long trip back to the Misty Depths and the hidden town that was guarded by the Cooper Crew.

Within the hours following their escape from the "Smartest Man on the Seven Seas" and with the treasure of Reme Lousteau, Shade and Penelope took turns with the system, until both were too tired to continue pumping it, and by mid-afternoon, the both of them were sleeping.

It was not long after the girls went to sleep, when an odd-looking, circular object in a right angle popped out of the salt water and looked around with its only "eye" until it saw the rowboats and the friends. The thing went down quickly, leaving the part of the sea uneventful for a few moments.

Then, something else rose from the waters of the sea, causing water to pour down, like rain, and waking up the girls.

"What's going on?" Penelope shot up from hearing the falling water as did Shade, who replied, "I don't know, but I think we're about to find out."

Then, the girls felt the rumbling of the lifeboats landing of something flat, knowing what happens when the bottom of a boat was on something flat. The next thing the girls knew was that they were on a wooden deck with gold coins and jewels landing on and near them.

"What hit us?" Penelope shouted out as she tried to lift herself from the flat surface, but Shade was on top of her.

"I don't know." The she-raccoon rolled off the mouse, nearly knocking the mouse's glasses off with her, "However, I've got a sinking feeling that we should be asking, 'What got under us?'"

"I think you're right." The purple-white rodent stood up and shook in fear of the unknown events that might occur.

Then, the glasses-wearing mouse noticed something about the flat area they were on, and she brought it to the raccon's attention.

"Shade?"

"Yeah?"

"I think we're on something... wooden."

"I think we're on a wooden deck."

Penelope's brown eyes grew wide as she made a realization what the girls were on.

"We're on the deck of a pirate ship!? A galleon that was submerged underwater!? That's not possible!?"

"I wouldn't be so quick to assume that, Penelope." The female raccoon replied in an attempt to maintain a sense of calm, but she was failing miserably.

Then, a creaking sound was heard, and the girls quickly knew that the noise was coming from behind them. Shade and Penelope tried to get off of the deck, but the wooden floor fell through, taking the friends and the treasure into the inside of the ship.

Feeling pain in a sharper level than the first time, Shade moaned out, "Ow... How come this sort of things happen to me?"

"Well, I'd say it's a mix of your curiosity and your family line." An aged voice of a man rang out to the raccoon's ears, causing Shade to turn to a huge walrus that had tattoos on his chest and arms.

Penelope was frightened by the large, purple walrus's appearance, but Shade was estatic upon seeing the very same being.

"Jim!"

Penelope looked at the she-raccoon in shock and asked, "You know this guy?!"

"Yeah," the brunette and black raccoon sheepishly grinned as she replied, "he was a friend of mine before the hag managed to chase him off the island."

"Am I to assume that this friendship and his banishmen was before you and I have met?" Penelope's eyebrow rose in her questioning of the raccoon.

"Pretty much." Giggled Shade, who was grinning at her friend, who was not very impressed with the raccon's actions.

"Shade," Jim spoke to the she-raccoon, "who's your young and smart friend?"

"This is Penelope." Shade responded to the walrus's question. Turning to the mouse, Shade intorduced her older friend, "Penelope, this is Jim McSweeny, a good friend and the closest thing I've had to a father."

The she-mouse looked at the walrus, who had a sad expression on his whiskered face, causing Penelope to regret her thoughts about the brutish male.

Then, the opening that brought the duo into the inside of the ship started to close above them, causing the three to look up as the opening closed completely.

"Well, it looks like we're going underwater again." Jim announced to the girls, who each responded in her own way.

Shade was doubtful, but she was also excited, interested of learning how the Silver Serpent was able to escape without getting caught or damaged. Penelope, however, was doubtful to the point that she was verbally with her skeptically thoughts.

"There's no possible way for a ship that is fast on the sea to be able to be fast in the water, which prevents the wind from entering the sails."

"And that statement's coming out of the mouth of the mouse that made a pulley-paddle system to help rowboats go faster." Shade reacted verbally to Penelope's doubt-filled comment.

Penelope frowned at the counter, knowing that the brown-furred she-raccoon was correct about her, but she made no attempt to defend herself, knowing that a losing battle waiting to happen.

"Ha, ha!" The warlus laughed out at Shade's words and Penelope's expression in response, "Shade's still have one of the sharpest tongues on the seas!"

"Maybe so," the younger friend of McSweeny laughed with her old friend, "but it still gets me into my fair share of trouble."

"And that's the truth." The near-white rodent freed a laugh from her mouth, recalling some of the times that Shade had gotten the both of them into trouble because of the brown and black raccoon's poor choice of words.

"Come on!" Jim motioned the girls to follow him, "There is much to talk about! After all, there're years to caught up with!"

"Right!" Shade giggled as she tried to follow the walrus, but she was pulled back by Penelope, who asked, "Are you sure about him?"

"Trust me about Jim." The chocolate-licorce raccoon replied nonchalantly, "He was my father's good friend for many years."

"How do you know that he's telling the truth?" Penelope asked with a cautious hiss in her voice.

"I just know." Shade simply replied, stunning her friend before going after Jim McSweeny and leaving her best friend nearly speechless.

"Shade, I-I! Oh! Nevermind!"

Then, Penelope ran after Shade and McSweeny, shouting, "Wait for me!"


End file.
